Pacific Rim: Where Angels Fear to Tread
by Blade for Hire
Summary: The Breach was sealed. The war was over. But some creatures just don't take a hint. Three years after the Breach mission, a new Kaiju epidemic is emerging, and could be even worse than the first. The Kaiju were back, but so where the Jeagers. And see how two young pilots discover why only fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Complete.
1. Prologue

Pacific Rim: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Prologue

Quiet rested on the Alaskan plains as a gentle snow fell all around. The small house on the hill overlooked the gulf, peaceful and serene with the white sky overhead. About a mile away on the beach, there could still be seen the impressions in the sand of where a Jaeger, one of the massive machines built to fight the Kaijus, had once fallen. At one time, it would have been a sad memorial, but now it was a proud monument of the success of the final days of the Jaeger Program. The Breach was sealed, and there was no threat to be concerned with anymore.

The quiet scene was disturbed by the appearance of an MH-53 helicopter bearing the marks of the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps coming from over the water. The chopper flew over the house and descended to the ground within a hundred meters of the front door. The side hatch opened and several soldiers stepped out, looking around briefly before nodding to the remaining passenger. He stepped out of the chopper, down the ramp, and on to the snowy ground, his BDU boots crunching in the virgin snow. Hercules Henson, marshal of the PPDC and former Jaeger pilot, looked around as the chopper's rotors spun down slowly. He looked at the house in front of him and took a deep breath. He'd hoped this day would never come. Frankly, he wasn't expecting it to have come himself, but it had. Now he was here. He waved his bodyguards to stay with the chopper as he started toward the house, his dog Max in hot pursuit of his owner. Herc didn't want to do this, but he had to. There was no other way. He kicked his boots free of snow as he ascended the steps of the porch and stood before the front door. He raised his hand to knock, hesitating a moment, but going through with it as he knocked gently three times. He waited for only a short moment before a familiar face answered the door. Mako Mori, former Jaeger pilot, opened the door and smiled at recognizing her former superior. She'd let her hair grow out quite a bit in the intervening years, but kept the blue locks bracketing her face.

Herc nodded to her, "Ms. Mori. Good to see you again."

She smiled in return, "It is good to see you, as well, marshal." Mako's sense of propriety and respect dictated that she always use rank when referring to someone, no matter how well she knew them.

The marshal motioned into the house, "Could I step in, please? It's bloody cold out here."

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry." Mako stepped aside and widened the door, allowing Herc to step in. Max followed his owner in and shook himself to get the snow off.

Herc looked around at the warmly and quaintly furnished house and nodded, "It's a nice place you two have here, Mako."

She nodded as she looked around, "Raleigh always wanted to settle in Alaska. He likes the cool air."

"Mako? Who was at the door?" The voice came from deeper in the house.

She smiled as she looked in the direction the voice came from, "Why don't you come and see, Raleigh." A moment later, Raleigh Beckett, one of the best Jaeger pilots who ever jockeyed, came down a hallway into the room toweling his hair like he'd just showered. He'd allowed himself a thick mustache and goatee over the years since they'd seen each other last, making him look older.

Raleigh smiled as he tossed the towel onto a chair, "Marshal Henson. It's good to see you." The two old comrades shook hands, "How's the arm?"

Herc huffed, "I only broke it three years ago, mate. You talk like I sawed it off."

The former Ranger chuckled, "So what brings you our way?"

Henson's gaze fell, "I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that. I need a word with you." He motioned to the couch behind him, "Would you mind?"

Raleigh shrugged, "No. Not at all. Have a seat." He looked at Mako, "Sweetie, could you go make us some coffee real quick?"

"Actually, I need to talk with you both." Herc sat down on the end of the couch. Raleigh sat down on an adjoining love seat while Mako sat next to him, leaning rather heavily on his chest.

Raleigh rested his arm around Mako, "What seems to be the trouble, marshal?"

Herc's gaze fell again and he took a deep breath before speaking, "We have a problem, Raleigh. A big problem. The Kaiju are coming back."

Raleigh's head jerked back in a surprised motion and Mako gasped, "What? How? We sealed the Breach. What do you mean they're coming back?"

Herc took a small tablet from his thigh pocket that he turned on before handing it to them, "This is data that we've been collecting over the last year or so. No one knows how it happened. Even Dr. Gotlieb and Dr. Giezler are stumped. But somehow one or two Kaijus slipped through the Breach before it closed. They've begun breeding, and at a rather alarming rate. Gotlieb thinks there could be anywhere from six to a few dozen out there by now. Newt thinks that closing the Breach activated some kind of fail-safe in their anatomy, something that allows them to breed faster and asexually to rebuild their numbers. And what's worse, there population growth has him convinced there's some kind of nesting ground out there somewhere in the deep reaches of the Pacific where the Kaiju are breeding and raising their young. If something isn't done now, we could be looking at an explosive population of Kaijus, worse than even when the Breach was open. And worse yet, without the Breach to let us know when they're coming, we can't track the buggers very well anymore."

Mako's eyes widened as she read the data, "Two attacks? The Kaiju have made landfall?"

Herc hung his head, "Yes. Once at Manila and again at Vladivostok. Small ones; Category IIs, but they still did some damage. There also have been a number of sightings between the attacks. We've managed to keep it all hush-hush for now, but dropping nukes on the things to kill them is hard to cover up. It won't be long before we have to expose the truth to the public."

Raleigh frowned as he handed the tablet back to Herc, "I'm guessing that's why you came, then. You want us to come back."

The marshal nodded, "The Jaeger Program has been reactivated. I need a first-response team and some trainers for new Rangers. I can't think of any better than you two."

"How'd you convince the PPDC Council to restart funding? Last I heard they were dead set against the Jaegers and more interested in their little 'Wall of Life' placebo."

Herc shrugged, "I told them that they needed a viable solution if they were going to deal with the problem. Imagine what would happen if this information about new Kaijus was released to the public. They'd have mass rioting all around the Rim all over again, and we all know how marvelously they handled that last time."

It was Mako's turn to frown, "You blackmailed them."

"'Blackmail' is such a harsh word, Ms. Mori. I…persuaded them. They really didn't have a choice. It was either reactivate the Jaegers, or present this information to the public with no viable alternative and face down hordes of angry citizens." Herc pressed some buttons on the tablet before handing it back to them, "They agreed to reactivate and fully fund the Jaeger Program, but it wasn't without conditions. The biggest of them was finding a way to build strong Jaegers faster and cheaper than we were before. That led to the Mark VI project."

Raleigh raised an eyebrow, "Mark VI?"

Herc nodded proudly, "Mark VI Jaegers have capabilities matching and even exceeding a Mark V. One of these bad boys could even put _Striker Eureka_ to shame. And the best part is with the new materials and construction methods we're using, they have the price tag of a Mark III and they can be assembled in just under eight months."

Mako's eyes widened, "That's under half the time of a normal Jaeger. That's remarkable."

"We're pretty much starting from the ground up, so we need short build times. Some Mark VIs have already been built and just need pilots." Henson chuckled, "We even brought an old Mark III back from the grave and updated her."

Beckett furrowed his brow, "What do you mean?"

Herc waved the comment off, "I'll tell you later. Right now, I need pilots for a first-response team and trainers that can show new Rangers the ropes. And that's you two, if you want to come back." He pulled a couple of pieces of folded paper from his thigh pocket and unfolded them to reveal them as a pair of reinstatement forms, "These just need your signatures to become official. Full rank and standing and then some. I hate to beg, but we need you. Now more than ever." He looked at Mako, "I'd hate to think my son and your father died just to see their work undone like this."

Raleigh looked at the forms for a long moment before nodding, "Marshal Pentecost once asked me if the world was coming to an end where I'd rather die; here or in a Jaeger. My answer hasn't changed." He looked at Mako, "What do you think?"

She shrugged, "You need a copilot. There's no one else who knows you better than me."

He nodded firmly, "I think that's a 'yes' for both of us, marshal. We're in."

Henson smiled as he clicked a pen that he handed to Raleigh, "Just sign on the lines at the bottom. Welcome back. Gather what you need. I'll be in the chopper outside." Raleigh and Mako signed the forms before getting up to pack. While they were both excited to be getting back into action, neither of them cared for the reason why. They thought the Kaiju threat had died with the Breach. To learn that all their hard work and risking their necks in that mission had just bought the world a few years was irksome to say the least. But they had a plan, and they were going through with it, which was a dang sight better than some flimsy wall. Both Raleigh and Mako smiled as they began packing. The best were back in the fight, and the Kaijus were gonna start dying.


	2. 1: Getting Started

1: Getting Started

The steady rain that normally darkened the day was refreshingly absent as the MH-53 approached the Hong Kong Shatterdome, a massive facility for the assembly, maintenance, and deployment of Jaegers. It could house thirty Jaegers in five bays and deploy them all in less than an hour. At present, the Shatterdome was cavernously empty, with very few Jaegers in the facility. That was one of many things there were plans in place to change over time.

The chopper set down and opened its hatch to allow the passengers to disembark. Raleigh and Mako stepped out after Herc and looked around at the familiar sight. Raleigh was now clean-shaven and Mako had trimmed her hair to about her jaw line, both of them bringing their appearances back to regulation standard. Herc motioned them on as a couple of troopers grabbed their bags and hurried them into the facility. They took the lift down to the main floor, starting into the Jaeger bay itself.

Herc fanned his arm around them, "Welcome back to the Shatterdome. We're planning to fill this facility up, thirty Jaegers total. It should be all we need to hunt down and exterminate the Kaijus once and for all."

Raleigh looked around as they walked, "Doesn't look like much has changed."

Henson punched in the security code to the bay as he turned to face him, "We're not exactly spending all this new funding on the decor, Raleigh. It shouldn't be anything you're not used to." The door opened to allow them in and Herc motioned around them, "We've only got two Jaegers fully assembled and operational; just need pilots. That'll be your first order of business tomorrow morning; finding a crew for the second Jaeger. We've got one good candidate and we just need a copilot."

Raleigh looked over his shoulder and nodded at another familiar sight, "I see you got the war clock running again." At present it showed that it had been over a month since the last Kaiju attack.

Herc nodded without looking back, "You can't imagine how disappointed everyone was the day we started that thing back up." He pointed further into the dome, "We've got the new Mark VI Jaegers back here."

"What do you think, Beckett-boy?" The familiar voice came from Raleigh's left, "These beasts will certainly make the Kaijus think twice." Raleigh smiled as he dropped his bag and gave Tendo Choi a hug.

He pulled back and slapped Tendo's shoulder, "I should've known you'd still be here, man."

Tendo shrugged, "What can I say. I love Jaegers. I'll be working on them until either they aren't needed anymore or until I die."

"Especially if I have anything to say about it." Herc nodded as he started them walking again, motioning to a mostly completed Jaeger in a bay to the left, "_Tango Courageous_, Australia's contribution to the cause. Well balanced example of a Mark VI, strong and fast."

Mako looked up at the mammoth machine, "It looks just like _Striker Eureka_." She shrugged, "Except for all the flame detailing."

Herc nodded without stopping, "That was Chuck's idea. He always wanted to get _Striker_ detailed with flames. I made certain to honor that wish this time." He pointed to other bays, "We've got _Tango_,_Mu-onna Ronin_ from Japan, and _Karma Delta_ from the Philippines. All three are within a week of being completed, and then they'll just need crews."

Raleigh looked around before looking at Herc and Tendo, "So what makes these Mark VIs so special?"

Tendo huffed, "How aren't they special? Let me show you." He led the little group to the far end of the bay before motioning up to the slot they stopped at. When they saw it, both Raleigh and Mako couldn't help but drop their bags and just stand in awe. In spite of having been sacrificed to destroy the Breach three years ago, there she stood in all her glory looking like new, even down the to paint job.

"I can't believe you rebuilt her." Raleigh shook his head, "_Gipsy Danger_."

Herc cleared his throat, "Technically, she's _Gipsy Danger II_, but the nostalgic ones among us tend to just sort of leave that 'II' part off."

Mako canted her head, "She looks different."

"That's because she is." Tendo folded his arms, "What do you see?"

Raleigh examined the Jaeger for a moment before nodding, "The turbine's gone."

"That's right. No more nuclear turbine. The Mark VIs all run on an XIG Supercell Chamber with a nuclear battery backup that can last for twenty four hours of cruise time or fourteen hours of combat. She's got more power than we know what to do with now. What else?"

Mako pointed up to the shoulders, "She has wings."

Herc nodded, "That was my idea. Most Mark VIs use T-19 Angel Wings, upgraded versions of the T-16s _Striker_ used. They help with aerodynamics during fast movement and have weight-shifting systems to maintain balance in combat. _Gipsy_'s head isn't detachable anymore, so she doesn't need the back flaps around the neck and shoulders she used to have. See anything else?"

Raleigh shook his head, "Besides that, she looks just like she used to."

Tendo pointed with a smirk, "You might notice she's a little shinier than last time. Mark VI's all have a forged titanium hull with a solid iron skeleton. The entire structure, especially the torso, is honeycombed with iron braces and supports. The Mark VI can take it as well as they can dish it out."

Raleigh looked at Herc, "What about the OS and circuitry?"

Herc nodded toward _Gipsy_, "I think we can safely say we learned our lesson from the Hong Kong Double Event. All Mark VIs have a primary _and_ secondary digital OS with a backup analog system that can take over in under a second if the primaries go offline. The circuitry is minimal inside the conn-pod and very well shielded."

Mako nodded appreciatively, "Three OS's. That sounds efficient."

Tendo stepped forward and turned to face them, "_Gipsy_'s up to spec for Mark VI now. She was the first Mark VI model to be completed. She has assault blade swords in each wrist and enhanced IB24 plasma cannons in each arm. All of the hand and arm joints are sheathed with 4.301 'Brass Knuckles' bracing systems to reinforce the fists and make each punch hit harder. Stick you two back in her head, and you'll be tearing Kaijus apart again in no time." He looked at _Gipsy_ and smiled, "The Twins are beasts, man."

Mako looked at Tendo and furrowed her brow, "Twins?"

"Oh, yeah. Forgot to tell you. _Gipsy_'s got a sister now." He pointed to the next slot over, at a second Jaeger that was identical to _Gipsy Danger_ except for the coloring, being grey with black markings instead of blue, "_Angel Horizon_. She was finished the same day as _Gipsy_. She's the one you'll be looking for a crew for tomorrow."

"Then we should get to it." Raleigh shouldered his bag again, "We'll get settled into a room and get some rest. Have the candidates ready to go in the Kwoon combat room at 0700." They both turned to walk away.

"Hey, Beckett-boy!" Tendo called after them, causing them both to stop and turn.

Tendo smiled, "Good to have you both back." Raleigh gave him a thumbs-up before taking Mako's hand and heading for the quartering area. These new Mark VI Jaegers were state-of-the-art weapons, top-of-the-line pieces of technology that could dish out some serious hurt in the right hands. Well, the right hands had arrived, and they were going to be training more right hands to dish out the hurt. The Kaijus were still a threat, but now there was a threat to the Kaijus.

############

The Kwoon Combat Room was the chamber of the Shatterdome set aside to test potential Rangers for drift-compatibility. If the fighting styles of the potentials were similar and complementary, they had demonstrated compatibility and would have a good neural handshake. If they were too contradictory, they wouldn't be able to drift well. The room held special significance to Raleigh and Mako because it was here where their relationship had really gotten its start.

In this case, though, the room wasn't a place for remembering. It was the place where a problem was forming. The primary candidate for _Angel Horizon_'s crew, a young lady named Carmen Manson, had gone through nearly two dozen other Ranger recruits in vain attempts to find someone drift-compatible. The problem was her fighting style was just too advanced for the others. The attractive brown-haired, blue-eyed woman kept beating them in five to six moves. Mako called up the next recruit as Raleigh and Herc watched. The fight started and ended shortly after with Carmen standing over her opponent, her boken pointed in his face.

Herc rubbed his temple while Mako announced the score, "This isn't good. She's going through candidates fast."

Raleigh nodded slowly, his arms folded over his chest, "She's good, that's for sure. A little too good, maybe. At this rate, _Angel_'s not getting a crew any time soon."

"What about this one?" Mako pointed to one of the last names on the list, "Daiman Rider. He has excellent training scores, and it says he even has piloting experience."

Raleigh nodded appreciatively, "Three kills in a Mark III. Maybe he can match her."

Herc shook his head, "I don't think that's going to work."

"Why not?"

"He's that far down on the list for a reason. Rider has…authority issues."

Beckett shrugged, "So do I, but you brought me back." Henson huffed in response before Raleigh continued, "Look, marshal, we don't exactly have many choices, do we."

Herc was silent for a long moment before he looked out into the crowd, "Daiman Rider! You're up."

"About time." The voice came from the back of the bunch as a sturdy-set young man with light brown hair and steel-blue eyes elbowed his way through the crowd. He pushed someone aside and twirled his boken to rest in the crook of his arm.

He acknowledged the marshal with a nod, "I was wondering when you were going to get all these noobs out of my way."

Raleigh shook his head, "Keep comments to yourself for now, Mr. Rider. You're up against Ms. Manson." The two walked past each other to take position as following tradition, "Four hits marks a win. Remember, it's a dialogue, not a fight. You're not trying to beat each other; you're trying to match each other."

Daiman twirled his boken into a ready position under his arm with his free hand forward, "You may be a rookie, but to me that's all the more reason not to take it easy on you." He leaned forward and smirked, "I'll try not to embarrass you too badly."

Carmen tossed a lock of brown hair out of her eyes with a twitch of her head, "I'll keep that in mind." The match began as she twirled her boken over her head to bring it down in a lateral strike. Daiman proved himself faster than he appeared as he quickly turned to present his back to her, catching the strike on his own boken. He then raised his weapon around and over his head, carrying Carmen's with it, turning and entangling her arms. He slipped the tip of the staff under her left arm before cranking to the right, somersaulting Carmen in a throw to the floor. He pulled his boken back and pointed the end at her, marking a hit.

He leaned down and smiled, "One zero. Nice try, rookie."

Raleigh leaned over to Herc, keeping his voice low, "He's good. That's the first hit she's taken all morning."

Carmen glared up at Daiman before rolling away and up to her feet, taking a ready stance with her boken to her right in both hands and pointed forward. Daiman waited her out again until she attacked, coming in with a spinning strike from the left. Daiman turned his weapon to stop her, but Carmen proved herself quick, also. She glanced off the boken before dropping low, spinning and sweeping the staff through Daiman's legs. His attempt to jump clear was thwarted when her boken caught his calf, throwing his legs out from under him. He hit the floor on his back, and Carmen was quick to put the end of her staff in his face to mark the hit.

"I'm a fast learner." She stepped back and spun the weapon back into ready position, "One one."

Daiman stood slowly and stretched his arm once, "Lucky hit." He took a stance, holding his boken toward the end pointed up with his hands up by his right shoulder. Carmen mimicked his stance, patiently waiting for Daiman to make the first move. Daiman feigned twice, causing Carmen to twitch the second time, before twirling his staff through the air around his back as he rotated in on the attack. His strike was met by Carmen's boken, stopping it before it could intersect. Daiman immediately rebounded, coming around to attack from the other side with the other end of his weapon. Carmen defended quickly by sliding her boken through her hand to present the lower half in time to stop Daiman's strike. She then turned to present her back, working her staff under Daiman's arms and levering herself forward to throw him. Daiman found himself looking up at the ceiling again with Carmen's boken pointing at him. The surrounding crowd came out with a chorus of "oohs" at seeing him go down a second time in a row.

Carmen shook her head, "Not luck. Training and practice." She stood up, "Two one."

Before she could step back, Daiman levered himself up on the floor and swung his legs around, scissoring them together to catch Carmen's waist between them in a guard. He then stood himself on one arm, turning his body to bring himself to his feet and throwing Carmen face-down to the floor all in one fluid motion.

"Two two." He stepped back from her, "Train all you want, but you've never gotten your metal wet. You won't know all the tricks until you're out there."

Raleigh leaned over to Herc, "They could match, but I don't know how well. Their personalities seem to clash."

Henson just nodded slowly, "Let's just see how it plays out."

Rider and Manson kept their distance from each other, circling slowly as they sized each other up and looked for openings. They both feigned a couple of times, testing the other's defenses. Daiman circled Carmen, holding his boken rested almost casually on his shoulder. Carmen's stance was quite the opposite, being very official and formal with her boken held to her right in both hands pointed toward her opponent. Finally, Carmen went on the attack, spinning and twirling her staff around behind her back before bringing it around and aimed for the shoulder. Daiman sidestepped, whipping his boken around to catch the strike. He then turned and rotated, sliding Carmen's boken over and off his own. She took advantage of the position she was left in and twirled the staff to swing for the ribs. Daiman ducked to one knee under the strike, bringing his boken around and stopping just short of hitting Carmen on her left hip, marking a hit. Without stopping, Carmen struck downward, trying to make use of Daiman's disadvantaged position. He raised his staff to stop the strike before rolling back on his shoulders to get to his feet. Carmen pursued him, twirling the boken over her head before bringing it down hard. Daiman stopped the strike again, but Carmen pulled another wild card, sliding her staff off of his and rotating a hundred and eighty degrees to bring the end of her own weapon forward through Daiman's guard and stopping just shy of his abs, a technical hit. The score was tied now at three and three, and the next good hit was game point. Raleigh looked out into the crowd to see money being exchanged between a number of spectators, likely bets on which one would win.

Both opponents took their stances once more, Daiman in his relaxed poise and Carmen in her official one. They circled each other for a long moment before another move was made. Finally, Carmen broke the silence as she went on the attack again, Daiman taking an aggressive-defensive stance. A long fury of blows was exchanged between them, a constant and seamless flow of strike, block, and counterstrike. Daiman defended from a high strike before returning one in kind from his right. Carmen leaned far back to avoid it before straightening and coming back from below, deflected by Daiman's staff, and so the fight went on.

Finally, a most peculiar thing happened. The two opponents locked staves for a long moment before pushing apart and twirling to attack again. They came around with bokens high and hard, coming to a stop an inch from the neck. Both stood there with their weapons held forward next to each other's head, a technical hit for both of them...at the same time.

Raleigh's eyes widened, "A draw? I gotta say I've never seen that before."

Mako stared wide-eyed for a moment before coming to her senses and marking her board, "Four points to four. No victor."

Daiman stepped back and twirled his staff around to rest in the crook of his arm as he caught his breath, "You're good, for a rookie. I'll give you that. But you still got nothing on good old fashioned experience."

"Quiet, Rider." Herc stepped forward, "I've seen what I need to see. You and Ms. Manson will be crewing _Angel Horizon_. Rider's seniority makes him team commander. Report to the Shatterdome for a trial run in two hours."

"Wait! What?" Daiman's eyes widened when he heard and he did a double-take at the marshal, "You're teaming me up with her?"

Henson nodded, "Did I stutter, or is it the accent? I said you and Ms. Manson will be crewing _Angel Horizon_. You have a dry run in two hours."

Daiman stepped closer to the marshal and cut his hand through the air, "Sir, you can't be serious. You can't pair me up with this rookie."

Herc folded his arms over his chest, "I am serious, and I can pair you up with this 'rookie', Mr. Rider. And it would be better for you not to question that any further."

Rider shook his head, "Sir, you can't–"

"That's enough, Ranger." Henson cut him off, "You and your copilot report to the Shatterdome in two hours. Dismissed." He turned and walked out of the room, Raleigh and Mako following him out.

Daiman looked at Carmen for a long moment before shaking his head, "You've gotta be kidding me."

Carmen huffed in return, "Look, wise guy, I'm not exactly thrilled with this pairing myself. You're not really what I imagined for my first copilot."

"Well, get used to it, princess, because it looks like we're stuck with each other." Daiman tossed his boken out of the ring before turning to go grab his boots and uniform. It appeared that _Angel Horizon_ had a crew now, but it wasn't quite what anyone was really expecting. They were drift-compatible, but they got along like oil and water. It was going to be an interesting time in the Shatterdome.


	3. 2: Dry Run

2: Dry Run

Things were buzzing in the LOCCENT control room. It was finally time for _Gipsy Danger II_, the first of the Mark VI Jaegers, to be started up for the first time with her long-time pilots, Mako Mori and Raleigh Beckett. It was a momentous occasion for everyone, a good clean-slate start for the Jaeger Program. That, and these Mark VI Jaegers were top-of-the-line pieces of technology, and everyone involved in their development was excited to see how they would perform.

Raleigh and Mako walked into _Gipsy_'s conn-pod set up in their new drive suits. Unlike _Gipsy Danger_'s first incarnation, these drive suits were custom designed and colored to match their Jaeger. Tendo had personally seen to that detail when developing the Mark VI drive suits. These suits were a black body glove that contained the neural circuitry and vitals sensors with plates matching _Gipsy_'s dark blue paint scheme.

Raleigh reached up on the harness arm and pressed several buttons, "LOCCENT, we're setting up. Harnesses set to test mode. Locking in now." He slid his helmet on as he stepped around in front of the right drive harness, Mako doing the same on the left. Once they'd set their feet into the lower receivers, without any assistance, the harness back plate and sensor arms automatically moved into position and secured themselves to the drive suit.

Raleigh looked at himself briefly, "Wow. That was kinda weird. I'm used to somebody zipping me up."

"I like it." Mako tested the arms for a moment, "Automatic set up cuts down deployment time."

Beckett reached up to the comm panel and pressed the PTT switch, "LOCCENT, we're good to go when you are."

Tendo's voice came over the speakers, "_Copy that, _Gipsy_. Stand by for start up._" Holograms and panels all across the conn-pod lit up as _Gipsy Danger_ came to life once again.

"_All systems green. Stand by for neural handshake in thirty._"

Mako looked at Raleigh, "Are you ready for this?"

Beckett chuckled, "You bet I am. I actually kinda miss knowing everything you're thinking." She rewarded the pithy comment with a coy smile.

"_Neural handshake in five..._" They both straightened and closed their eyes in preparation, "..._four...three...two...one..._" They both felt the familiar tingling sensation they hadn't felt in almost three years: the Drift, two pilots mind-melding through memories with the body of a giant machine. Raleigh and Mako each saw both of their childhoods, the good and the bad. They saw the day they first met, their first kill as a team, even _Gipsy_'s final moments in the Breach mission, as well as some memories they'd shared since then. Finally, once the drift had settled, they both felt the sensation that caused them to open their eyes and look around, and _Gipsy_ began to move with them as the Jaeger AI announced that both pilots were connected and calibrating. It was an old familiar feeling that caused them both to smile.

"New machine, same spirit." Raleigh looked at his hands, flexing them open and closed briefly before looking at Mako, "I think _Gipsy_ missed us."

She smiled as she did the same, "I know she missed us."

"Let's show everyone in the dome that _Gipsy Danger_'s back." They both raised their arms for the announcement. Outside, _Gipsy_ raised her arms and worked the fingers of the right hand open and closed once before pounding the left fist into the right palm with a deafening clang of metal.

Over in LOCCENT, Tendo smiled as he watched the massive machine make _Gipsy_'s signature opener for the first time, "Calibration running smoothly, _Gipsy_. Everything's looking good."

Herc nodded appreciatively, "If I didn't know better, I'd say that machine missed them."

Raleigh and Mako put _Gipsy_ through a few more basic arm movements over the next couple of minutes to finish calibration before Raleigh looked over at Mako with a smirk, "What do you think? Should we activate one of the plasma cannons? Give everyone a good scare for old time's sake?"

Mako shot him a berating look, "Raleigh, behave yourself." She shook her head at remembering the time she'd nearly unconsciously punched a hole in the Shatterdome.

He chuckled before hitting the comm switch, "Calibration's complete and all systems checked, LOCCENT. How're we looking on your end?"

Over in the control room, Tendo nodded firmly as he checked several panels, "All systems are running solid, _Gipsy_. You are golden. Prepare to power down and begin post-test diagnostics."

"_Copy that. Powering down_." The massive Jaeger moved back into default position and stance as they heard the systems winding down.

Herc looked over his shoulder to Rider and Manson, "You're up. Get suited up and inside _Angel_'s head ASAP."

Daiman nodded firmly, "Will do, sir." He glanced at Carmen with hard eyes briefly before turning and heading out of the control room to suit up, and Carmen followed a moment later. After getting zipped into their new drive suits, which also matched _Angel Horizon_'s scheme of grey with black markings, the disliking pair came through the hatch to _Angel_'s conn-pod, the door closing and locking behind them.

"I got left side." Daiman slid his helmet on as he reached up to change the harness mode.

Carmen huffed at him, "Thanks for giving me a choice."

He finished the adjustment and looked at her, "Okay, I'll give you a choice. You can have the right side or the outside."

"_That's enough, Mr. Rider. Don't make me tell you again to check your mouth._" Marshal Henson's voice didn't sound at all pleased over the comm.

Rider nodded, "I copy, sir." He looked at Carmen again as he stepped around in front of the left drive harness, "Look, I don't like this pairing any more than you do, so let's just get this over with. Okay?" They both set their feet in the receivers, triggering the rest of the harness to lock in automatically.

Daiman looked at his arms, "Automatic set up. I like."

Carmen nodded, "I can see why they'd equip this. It should cut down on deployment time by several minutes."

Daiman reached up to the comm panel, "LOCCENT, we're good to go for power up and neural handshake when ready."

Tendo's voice came back, "_Copy, _Angel_. Powering up now. Neural handshake in thirty._"

Monitors and holograms came to life across the conn-pod as Rider looked at Manson, "Okay, Carmen, this is your first drift, so listen up. Rule number one: don't chase the R.A.B.I.T. Random Access–"

"I know what 'R.A.B.I.T.' stands for." She gave him an irritated glare.

Daiman nodded in return, "Well, good. Then you should know all about how to avoid it." He straightened and looked forward, lacing his fingers together before pressing his palms out to crack his knuckles, "Just don't latch on to any memories. Let them flow. The drift is silence."

"_Neural handshake in five...four...three...two...one..._" The tingling feeling covered the pair's bodies as they drifted together for the first time. Every person has a unique presence in the drift, feeling one way or another as their consciousness melds with someone else's. Daiman felt a cool and controlled presence enter his mind as he merged with Carmen in the drift. Contrarily, Carmen felt a warm, almost hot, wild presence as her mind melded with Daiman's in _Angel_'s body. Finally, the drift settled and both pilots opened their eyes to look around, the Jaeger moving with them as the AI announced that both hemispheres were connected and now calibrating.

"_Neural handshake holding strong at one hundred percent. Looking good, _Angel_._"

Daiman looked at his copilot, "How's it feel?"

She just looked at her hands with wide eyes, "This is…amazing. It's like I _am_ the Jaeger. Nothing they said in the academy could've prepared me for this."

"Some things can only be learned by experience, Carmen." Daiman raised his hands to a fighting position, "Let's move around some, get a feel for her while she's calibrating. You need to be just as familiar with this big metal body as your small fleshy one." They started moving the arms in some basic maneuvers, giving the newbie a chance to feel it out.

Tendo rolled his chair back and forth between several panels, nodding at each one while _Angel_ moved their arms around in the Shatterdome outside, "Looking good. Everything's holding up the way we expected." He moved over to the mike boom, "Calibrations complete, _Angel_. Prepare to power…Uh-oh."

Herc stepped closer as Raleigh and Mako joined him still in their drive suits, "That's not a word I like to hear, Tendo. What's wrong?"

Mr. Choi started working frantically on his console, "Manson just went out of phase. Rider's fine, but I got nothing on the neural handshake." He went back to the mike, "Rider, Manson just went out of phase."

"_Yeah, all the flashing red screens in here were kind of a giveaway. Want me to unplug her?_"

Tendo shook his head, "No, not yet. We're going to do some things on this end first. Try to talk her back in if you can."

Back inside _Angel_'s head, Rider hit the PTT switch, "Um, news flash: she hates me. I don't know how effective that's gonna be."

"_Just do what you can._"

He shrugged, "No promises." Daiman looked at Manson, who was starting to get a blank stare on her face, "Carmen? Carmen, can you hear me? Carmen, whatever you're seeing, it's just a memory. It's not real. Let it go. Stay in the drift. Carmen, can you hear me?" He shook his head as he hit the comm switch again, "She's a vegetable, man. I got nothing."

"_Just hold on. We're going to try something here._"

Daiman looked at Carmen in time to notice her face harden and her hands clench into fists. Holograms appeared around her right forearm as the system registered the unconscious neural command. Outside, _Angel_'s right hand clenched into a fist, the assault blades snapping around from their forearm stowage to form the sword.

In LOCCENT, Tendo checked around his console before his eye caught the weapon, "The fail-safe software isn't responding. It's gotta be a…oh no." His eyes widened at seeing it before he turned and waved everyone out, "Weapon activation! Weapon activation! Everyone, clear the room now!" He turned back to his console and started working furiously as the other techs started evacuating the control room.

Raleigh stepped up to help, "If she's chasing the R.A.B.I.T., her connection's going to be too strong to block. We need to cut the power."

Tendo nodded, "I tried. _Angel_'s running on independent power. We need to disconnect Manson."

Rider's voice came over the comm, "_Still want me to wait on unplugging her?_"

Herc stepped forward and grabbed the mike boom, "Do it! Before she carves a hole in the dome."

Inside the Jaeger, Rider disengaged himself from the drive harness and pulled off his helmet as he walked around behind the operator arms to hit the emergency eject button, causing Manson's harness to detach and drop her. Daiman caught her as she fell to let her down easy, kneeling next to her and pulling her helmet off as the AI announced an invalid disconnect. He checked her eyes for signs of brain damage, making sure nothing had fried upstairs during the mess.

Once sure she was fine, he started gently tapping the side of her face to wake her up, "Hey. You in there? Snap out of it, rookie. Wake up." Carmen's eyes started darting around and blinking rapidly as she came to, and she sat up to clear her head.

She looked at Daiman, "What happened?"

Rider stood and stormed around in a fury, "You did exactly what I warned you not to do! You latched on to a memory! You chased the dang R.A.B.I.T.!" He ran his hand through his hair before looking down at her, "What wonderful childhood memory was so all-fired important that you felt it was worth going out of phase for?"

"It wasn't one of my memories." Carmen looked Daiman in the eye, "It was one of yours."

Daiman's features and demeanor suddenly shifted drastically. Instead of being livid, his face changed to a horrified expression as he started backing away from Carmen. She just looked up at him innocently, her blue-eyed gaze piercing into him.

He shook his head slowly, "I'm done." He tossed his helmet aside before turning around to input the security code to unlock the conn-pod. Back in LOCCENT, everyone was reviewing what had just gone wrong and looking for ways to fix it.

Tendo motioned to a schematic of the conn-pod as he spoke, "It wasn't the neural blocker. Those are redundant at several points. It was a software failure, and we can fix that by upgrading the–"

"I'm done!" Daiman strode up to the group, still in his drive suit, "I want out! I'm done with this outfit."

Herc turned and waved his frustration down, "Calm down, Rider. It was one botched dry run. That's what it's for; to get all the mistakes out of the way ahead of time. Next time–"

Daiman cut his hand through the air, "That's not it. I can't have her in my head again. I want out now."

Raleigh set his helmet on a nearby console as he stepped closer, "What is it, Daiman? What's wrong?"

"That's none of your business!" Rider made eye contact with everyone present as Carmen came up behind him, "I'm gone. I'll be on the first chopper out of here tomorrow morning. Until then, I'll be in my room packing." He turned and left quickly, bumping Carmen's shoulder on the way out.

Mako looked around at everyone, "Now what? One of our only trained pilots just walked out of the program."

Raleigh nodded at his girlfriend's observation, "And we don't even know why. He walks out and we're up a crap creek."

Tendo shrugged, "I could start looking for more candidates, but this late in the game, it's not likely I'll find more than one or two."

"We're not entirely without options." Herc shook his head, rubbing the five o'clock shadow on his chin, "There is one person here who knows why Rider's locked down; one person who might be able to talk him back." His eyes immediately went to the only person who'd been in Daiman's head.

Carmen's eyes widened, "Me?"

Herc nodded as he stepped forward, "You've drifted with Rider, Manson. You've been in his memories. You're the only one who knows what's going on in his head right now."

She nodded in response, "Maybe, but in case you didn't notice, Daiman doesn't like me, and I'm not too keen on him, either."

The marshal rested a hand on her shoulder, "We're talking about saving the world from a potential Kaiju epidemic, Manson. If Rider walks out, the setback could cost thousands of lives. We need him, and our job is too important to let clashing personalities get in the way."

Carmen was quiet for a long moment before nodding slowly, "I'll do what I can."

############

Daiman threw another lump of clothing into his duffel bag, nearly filling it up. He pushed it in as he looked at the pile of equipment on the table that was his drive suit. He'd removed it himself, not the first time he'd done something similar, before swapping into some BDUs and would leave it for them to collect later. He was leaving as soon as he could get packed. He didn't want anyone in his head again. His reasons were his own.

There was a loud knock at the door that Daiman didn't even look at, "Go away!" There was quiet for a moment before the knock came again, this time earning his glare, "I said go away!" After another long pause, the lock on the door clicked loudly before the wheel turned and allowed the door to open as Carmen stepped in cautiously.

Daiman looked over his shoulder at her, his brow hardening into another glare, "How'd you get in?"

"The marshal gave me a key." She showed the key in question before pocketing it, "What's wrong, Daiman? Why are you leaving?"

"That's none of your business." He didn't even look at her as he kept packing his duffel.

Carmen took a step closer, "Daiman, we need you. If you leave, _Angel_'s out of commission and we're set back by who knows how long. If the Kaijus attack again during that time, we won't have response team to fight them back. We need you, Daiman, more than you know."

Rider finally looked over his shoulder, "Well, it looks like they'll have to find someone else for the job, because I'll be gone tomorrow morning."

Carmen folded her arms and shifted her weight to her other leg, "Is this how you solve all your problems? By running from them?" The cutting question caused Daiman to stop what he was doing and glare at her again.

She shook her head, "That was uncalled for. I'm sorry. But whatever the problem is, you're not going to fix it by running away. Daiman, in the drift, I felt a lot of pain from you; a lot of anger. We want to help you, but you have to let us help you. If nothing else, let us help just so we can do our jobs."

Daiman huffed as he resumed packing, "You don't know where I'm coming from, so there's no way you can understand."

"Try me." Carmen stared at him defiantly, her blue-eyed gaze cutting through to his soul, "I might understand if you tell me."

Daiman stopped packing and hung his head for a long moment, finally turning around to sit on his bed, "I come from a long military family. Dad flew an F-22 in the Air Force. We were stationed in San Francisco on K-Day. Dad was part of the first wave to fly in against Trespasser. He was swatted out of the sky like a bug; never stood a chance. Mom and I were trying to get out of the city. We thought we were in the clear when Trespasser smashed through a block of buildings right next to us. I could've sworn we were done for when a platoon of tanks at the other end of the street opened up on him. I was separated from my mom in the chaos. I found her two days later in one of the refugee camps, but apparently those tanks had managed to make Trespasser bleed…and mom got caught in it."

Carmen nodded slowly as she leaned against the table behind her, "Kaiju Blue."

Daiman returned the nod, "I couldn't even hold my mom's hand as she died, she was coughing up so much of that blue crap. I spent the next week in the refugee camp, begging for rations from anyone with a heart big enough to give them to a twelve-year-old kid. My grandparents finally came and found me. They took me home and raised me. I tried to move on, to forget the whole thing ever happened and just live my life, but regular reminders about new Kaiju attacks on the news every six months didn't help. I graduated from high school and went to college. I've always liked computers, so I wanted to be technician. First semester of my junior year, I met a nice young lady, Deanna."

Carmen nodded again, "I saw her in the drift. She was beautiful."

"We dated steadily for a while. We even talked about getting married after college. Unfortunately, first semester of my senior year, I got word that Deanna was cheating on me with some punk on the school football team. When I confronted her about it, she got mad; started making our relationship sound like something lousy and blaming me for it all. She broke up with me right then and there." Daiman's gaze fell and he shrugged, "Just like before, I tried to move on. Just forget it happened. It's all I could do. After graduation, a recruiter for the Jaeger Program found me. He said I had potential as a pilot and convinced me to join up. My military background and degree in mechanical circuitry landed me as a pilot. I got drift-paired with a long-lost buddy from high school named Kenny. We had a good run, even made three kills, until our Jaeger was decommissioned. The program was shut down a month later and Kenny and I were honorably discharged. Then, about three years ago, I got a call from none other than my ex-girlfriend, Deanna. She said she'd been thinking about me a lot recently and felt terrible about how she'd treated me. She wanted to talk about it in person; told me she was in Hong Kong and hoped to see me there so we could talk."

Carmen canted her head, "What did you do?"

Daiman huffed harshly, "What do you think I did? I hung up on her. I didn't want to have anything to do with her. But it wasn't even a week later that I heard about the Double Event Incident in Hong Kong. In spite of everything that happened between us, I wanted to know she was all right, so I pulled some strings with a few old friends and got the casualty list. Deanna's name was on it." He shook his head slowly with a distant look in his eyes, "She wanted to make things right between us, and I threw it back in her face. I called her a selfish whore before I hung up on her. She wanted to fix things, and all I did was insult her for it. Now I'll never get a chance to make things right." He took a deep breath to break the mood, "About three months ago, I heard that my old copilot, Kenny, had been killed in Manila in one of the recent Kaiju attacks. While I was sad he was gone, in a way I also saw it as an escape. It meant I'd never have to have anyone in my head poking around my bad memories ever again. Or at least that was the plan until Marshal Henson showed up on my front door with a reinstatement form in hand." Daiman looked Carmen in the eye, allowing some of that fiery anger to show in his own, "So that's my tear-jerker, orphan-kid sob story. These may be bad and sad memories, but they are _my_ memories; _my_ problems. I'm the only one who can deal with them and no one else has any right intruding there."

Carmen nodded once and was quiet for a long moment before speaking up, "I'm sorry for all you've been through, Daiman. I really am. I know there's nothing I can say that will make it easier. I wish there was, but there isn't. I want to help you. If nothing else so we can work better together."

Daiman looked up at her with more fire in his eyes, "Why do you want to help me? Is it just your duty, or do you actually give a dang?"

"You're not the only one who's been hurt, Daiman!" Carmen's normally cool temperament slipped in that moment as she glared hard at her copilot, causing him to finally shut his mouth.

She took a deep breath before continuing, "Excuse me for snapping at you, but I don't like seeing people in pain. You're not the only person in this world who's been hurt, Daiman." Carmen stood up from the table to step aside and sit down on the stool in front of it, "I was born in Alaska, but my family moved to San Francisco following one of my dad's job promotions. We moved there in July. K-Day was in August. We were trying to escape the city over the Bay Bridge when Trespasser hit it. My father was knocked off the bridge and we never saw him again. It would be nearly a week before we learned he'd died in the fall. That left my mom raising an emotionally traumatized teenage girl on her own. Much like you, I just tried to forget it all ever happened, though seeing new Kaiju attacks on the news every few months didn't exactly help."

Daiman snorted, "I know how that feels."

Carmen continued, "I got a job while I was in high school to save up for college. One night during my senior year, I came home from work and saw our front door had been broken in. I ran into the house and found my mom dead on the living room floor. She'd been murdered." Carmen took a sharp breath, clearly holding back tears, "We weren't rich. Mom worked two jobs just to put food on the table. We didn't have anything of value, so they took the only valuable thing left. And to add insult to injury, the one who did it was never found." She took a breath to compose herself before going on, "Fortunately, my uncle, my mom's brother, took me in and helped me to move on. We got really close, me and my uncle; so close that I've caught myself calling him 'dad' from time to time. I went to college after high school. I always wanted to get a degree in accounting and start my own business. My freshman year, I met a nice young man, and we started dating. Spring break of my sophomore year, I went to my boyfriend's house for a surprise visit and found him cheating on me with my best friend. I turned around and walked out the door; haven't seen either of them since." She shrugged, almost casually, "That was the last straw. I couldn't take it anymore. My uncle came to my dorm room and found me curled up and drunk in a corner. He took me home and got me cleaned up. That was when he also started talking to me about joining the Jaeger Program; as he said 'put all that anger to good use'. So, I dropped out of college and applied. My test scores got me into the Rangers. Unfortunately, I graduated from the academy just in time for the program to be shut down. Marshal Henson reinstated me because I was already trained and he needed a team."

She stood up and took a step toward Daiman, "So you see? We're a lot more alike than you think, you and I. I understand where you're coming from, been through many of the same things, which is probably why we're drift-compatible. The difference between you and me, Daiman, is that I learned to let people in to help me with my problems. You're trying to do this whole lone gunslinger act, and I say from experience that it doesn't work. You have to let people in, let them help you carry your burdens. Yes, you have bad memories, but that means you have to make new ones, better memories that you'll enjoy recalling, and find friends to make your new memories with. Don't let this get in the way, Daiman. We need you. The world needs you, more than you know. Please, don't run away." Carmen allowed silence to linger for a moment, "Will you at least think about it?"

The silence hung in the air for long time before Daiman nodded without looking at her, "I will."

Carmen nodded to him, "Thank you, Daiman." She turned for the door and left without another word. The door crank latched and Daiman just sat on his bunk, vacantly staring at the far wall. Maybe she was right. Maybe he was taking too much on himself by trying to carry his burdens alone. Much like the Jaegers; the neural load of the machine was too great for a single pilot, which meant two pilots were needed to run it. Maybe he'd been shouldering his own neural load by himself for too long. Maybe he needed a second pilot. Daiman shook his head as he stood and headed for the bathroom to wash up. It was something he needed to think long and hard about.


	4. 3: Training Wheels

3: Training Wheels

The rest of the day came and went without anyone seeing hide nor hair of Daiman. Everyone was pretty sure that he'd made up his mind. He was going to be packed and out of there in the morning. The day started bright and early as it did every day. Tendo had his hands full making sure nobody touched his precious adjustments to the comms signals and Herc had to keep everyone focused on their objective, building their force and getting ready to hunt down Kaijus. Raleigh came into the LOCCENT control room and found Henson giving orders to a group of technicians.

He approached as the techs saluted and left, "What's on today's schedule, marshal?"

Herc shrugged as he looked at his tablet, "I'm not really sure there is a schedule anymore with Rider pulling out and all."

"Any word from him?"

Henson shook his head, "Not a peep. I'm half tempted to ground every chopper leaving the Shatterdome this morning, but I know that's not going to help anything."

Raleigh nodded, "Guess we'll just have to hope for the best and hope he comes back."

"Hope who comes back?" The voice came from the control room entrance as Daiman Rider walked up to them.

Raleigh smiled and Herc's eyes widened as he nodded to Daiman, "Mr. Rider. I have to admit, I didn't expect to see you again."

Daiman shrugged, "Yeah, well, I'm here, so let's not make any more of this than it has to be."

Raleigh shook Rider's hand, "Glad you're sticking around, Daiman. You don't know what this means to us."

"I have a hunch." Daiman looked at Henson, "What's on the slate, boss?"

Herc looked at his tablet, "Well, _Angel Horizon_ has a live exercise with _Gipsy Danger_ in an hour. We need to re-certify both you and Manson as combat-ready. Just dust the cobwebs off your training and help get Manson broken in."

Rider nodded firmly, "Sweet. I'll grab Carmen and we'll get suited up." He turned to leave the room to follow his orders.

"Rider." Herc called after him, causing him to turn to look.

"Thank you for staying." Rider nodded in return before leaving the room.

############

It didn't take much time for both teams to get suited up and locked into their Jaegers. They were actually ahead of schedule as they were flown out to the training area. _Gipsy_ was in the lead with _Angel_ following closely.

Inside _Angel_'s head, the lead chopper called in to the conn-pod, "Angel_, this carry lead. Time to drop: two minutes._"

Daiman reached up to hit the comm switch, "_Angel_ copies, carry lead." He looked at his copilot as he flipped a couple of switches to make some minor adjustments, "Hey, uh, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday."

Carmen looked over at him, "Anything in particular?"

He shrugged, "I was thinking about what you said about letting people help and making new memories. I figured you were right. I need to let people in, help me carry my load, make some good memories for a change."

Carmen tapped the side of her helmet, "Did I hear you correctly, because I think you just admitted that I was right."

Daiman pointed at her, "That rarely happens, so take it while it's offered."

She laughed in return as she made a few adjustments on her side, "Daiman, with you, I'll take what I can get."

"_Carry lead to _Angel_, five seconds to drop._"

"_Angel_ copies, carry lead." Daiman looked at his copilot, "Okay, Carmen this is your first real drop. It's going to feel really–" He was cut off by the choppers disconnecting the carry hooks, letting _Angel_ drop in free fall for nearly a hundred feet before hitting the water and the ocean floor beneath it, feeling the thud of the landing through the feet.

"– rough." Daiman finished his thought after it was needed, "You okay?"

Carmen nodded, "Yeah. Except for getting my stomach out of my throat, that was kinda fun. Can we do it again?"

"_Maybe later, _Angel_._" Raleigh's voice came over the channel as _Gipsy_ stepped into view, "_Welcome to the refresher course. We're going to try to make this quick so we can re-cert you both combat-ready. First we need to see the basics. Show me some basic arm movements._"

Daiman activated the movement input feeds before hitting the comm, "_Angel_ copies, _Gipsy_." He looked at Carmen, "Remember: the Jaeger is your body, too. Full range of motion. Nothing fancy." She nodded in return as they both began. Outside, the massive mech raised its arm to full extension forward, outward, and up, demonstrating full range of motion and understanding of the arm movements.

"_Good. Now legs. Take four steps forward and then four steps back._"

"Copy that." Daiman looked at Carmen again, "It's just walking. Baby steps. Nothing to it." They took the steps they needed, _Angel_ stepping forward closer to _Gipsy_ four times very naturally and back again.

"_Looking good._" _Gipsy_ took a step back, "_Now combat basics. You mimic whatever we do._"

Daiman nodded, "_Angel_ copies. Combat basics, Carmen. Crosses, jabs. You get the idea. Just keep your eye on the lead." _Gipsy_ took a basic fighting stance and swung a right hook, and _Angel_ duplicated it quickly. It was followed by a left hook, also quickly duplicated. The next several minutes were spent practicing combat maneuvers that gradually increased in length and complexity, and _Angel_ mimicked everything that _Gipsy_ gave her.

"_Looking real good, _Angel_. Now to check running, we're gonna have a little race._" _Gipsy_ pointed to their right, "_I'm gonna set a waypoint about half a mile that way. You try to beat us there._"

"Roger that." _Angel_'s head nodded following Daiman's input and they looked out to where the waypoint appeared on the HUD.

"_Ready...Go!_" _Gipsy_ took off and quickly made full sprint on their way to the marker. The Mark VI's were even faster than _Striker Eureka_ was, necessitating the "Angel Wings" to maintain aerodynamics and balance. _Angel_ quickly followed suit, starting up a slow run that steadily gained speed. Inside, both Daiman and Carmen were going at full run, pushing against the water around their ankles.

Carmen looked at her copilot as she ran and smiled, "Come on, Daiman! Put some muscle into it."

Daiman nodded in return, "I know. We're still behind." He nodded to _Gipsy_ still about a hundred feet ahead.

He looked at Carmen, "I got an idea. Lean forward some more and kick in the rear jets."

She looked back at him, "Has this been tested before?"

"No. I just made it up half a second ago." He smirked, "But that's half the fun."

Carmen nodded in return, "Okay. But don't say I didn't warn you." They leaned forward several degrees more as the rear boosters kicked on, spouting blue flame several dozen feet behind them. The angle of the boost accelerated them noticeably, and _Angel_ quickly pulled ahead of _Gipsy_.

"We're almost there." Daiman nodded to the waypoint, "Brake on my mark."

Carmen looked at him, "Moving this much tonnage this fast, shouldn't we be braking now?"

"Just a little further." They ran to within a hundred feet of the marker before Daiman nodded, "Now!" They killed the rear jets and leaned back from the direction of motion, allowing the legs to idle them to a stop. However, the team commander wasn't up on his physics. The sudden shift in weight threw off the "Angel Wings" balance system and caused them to throw more weight toward the back, pulling the Jaeger down backward. _Angel_'s feet slid out from under them and they braced themselves on the left arm to catch their fall in a wide splash of water. _Gipsy_ idled to a stop a short distance away and walked over to observe the humiliation.

Inside _Angel_'s head, Carmen gave Daiman an irritated look, "Now what, genius?"

"It was faster than I'm used to. Sue me." He shrugged sheepishly, "Throw the weight your way and push up to our feet." _Angel_ threw their right shoulder over to plant their hand on the ocean floor before pushing up to their feet, standing up properly from there.

_Gipsy_ nodded as Raleigh's voice came over the channel again, "_Not bad, _Angel_. Good improvisation, but you should be more cautious. You could've damaged something._"

"No more than my ego." Rider muttered under his breath, causing Carmen to snort a giggle.

Back in LOCCENT, Tendo was watching the training run before hearing a loud, shrill beeping, causing him to look at the source. A bio-signature monitor was going off with massive readings, which spelled "Kaiju". He rolled his chair over and looked at the readings, comparing them with the location to find that it was heading right for _Gipsy_ and _Angel_.

"Kaiju signature!" Tendo pushed back to his console as Herc joined him over his shoulder, "Category III, heading right for the Jaegers."

Herc grabbed the mike boom, "_Gipsy_, you've got a Kaiju signature surfacing in your area. Category III. It's headed right for you. Take it out."

Over on the training grounds, _Gipsy_'s head nodded visibly, "_Copy that, LOCCENT._" They looked at _Angel_, "_LOCCENT just picked up a Cat III Kaiju headed straight for us. We'll take care of it. You stay back and do not engage. Do you copy?_"

"_Angel_ copies, _Gipsy_." Daiman switched the comm and shook his head as they stepped back away from the other Jaeger, "Man. First Kaiju sighting we're deployed for and _Gipsy_ gets to have all the fun. Epic fail."

Carmen shrugged, "We get to watch. See how tough these Mark VI's really are."

The Kaiju surfaced nearly a hundred feet in front of _Gipsy_, a massive creature with the head of a shark like Knifehead, two muscular arms, and a long tail with spikes going down the spine. It broke the surface and roared as it continued toward its target. _Gipsy Danger_ pounded their fist into their hand before taking a fighting stance as the Kaiju approached, nearing _Gipsy_ and raising a clawed hand to strike. The Jaeger deftly moved aside from the strike, landing a solid punch to its face at the same time. _Gipsy_ followed with another cross to the head and an uppercut to the jaw a moment later, visibly dazing the Kaiju. _Gipsy_ raised both fists, locking the elbows, before bringing them both down in a powerful hammer strike on the Kaiju's head. The spikes on its back raised as it swung its tail at them like a large pliable blade, and _Gipsy_ stepped aside to dodge it. The Kaiju swung again as it got to its feet, but this time _Gipsy_ caught the tail and held it in both hands before bringing it down hard on their knee. The crack of the Kaiju bone was audible even to _Angel_, and the Kaiju howled in pain. Before it could withdraw the wounded appendage, _Gipsy_ added insult to injury by firing up one of their plasma cannons, putting the muzzle to the base of the tail and firing point-blank to blast it off cleanly. They stood up and tossed the severed tail aside as the Kaiju stepped back to attack again. This fight was not going well for the Kaiju; _Gipsy_ hadn't even been scratched.

Back in LOCCENT, Tendo was just starting to enjoy watching _Gipsy_ take this Kaiju apart before he heard the same beeping that announced the first one. The control room AI announced the arrival of a second Kaiju signature, also Category III, near the first one and headed right for them.

Tendo grabbed the mike boom, "_Gipsy_, you've got a second Kaiju coming right at you. Do you copy?" There was nothing but static on the line for a moment.

"_Gipsy_, do you copy?" Still nothing but static.

"LOCCENT to _Gipsy Danger_ and _Angel Horizon_. Does anyone copy?" He looked up at Herc beside him, "I got nothing. I can't raise them."

Henson nodded somberly, "One of the Kaijus must be jamming the comms."

Tendo's brow furrowed, "How can a Kaiju jam comms?"

"One fired an EMP burst from its back once. I don't think it's a stretch to say they can jam signals." Herc looked at the holo-screen with the four signatures on it, "Let's just hope someone notices in time."

Over at the grounds and inside _Angel_'s head, Daiman was watching the fight before he noticed a flashing screen from the corner of his eye. He looked and found that the on-board sensors had picked up a second Kaiju signature on approach, heading right for _Gipsy_.

"Uh, Carmen?" He called her attention to the screen, "We have a problem."

She looked and her eyes widened, "A second Kaiju?" She looked at _Gipsy_ fighting the first, "They'll never know it's there until it's too late."

Daiman's brow hardened, "We've gotta do something. We have to engage."

Carmen shook her head, "Orders are to stay put."

"Those were our orders before a second Kaiju showed up. The situation has changed. We have to engage." He pointed out toward the other Jaeger, "If we just sit here, they'll get the drop on _Gipsy_. Trust me, Carmen. I've seen it happen before."

Carmen thought for a short moment before nodding, and they both started moving toward the fight, "How are we going to do this?"

"Let him know we're here hard and loud. We charge in full-tilt, jump, and do a power shot on the descent; ring his bell real good." Daiman looked at her, "Think you can handle it?"

She nodded nervously, "I think so."

Daiman nodded to her, "You got this, Carmen. Let's do it together. Follow my lead."

_Angel_ started into a sprint on an intercept course for the second Kaiju, the intercept point just a few dozen feet from where _Gipsy_ was fighting. The two opponents closed the distance frighteningly fast.

"Ready up!" Daiman's order brought the right arm up as they ran, the arm joints tensing to prep for a full-power swing. They closed to within striking distance as the Kaiju surfaced and leaped to attack _Gipsy_.

"Now!" The rear jets fired, bringing the Jaeger nearly fifty feet out of the water into a jump. They came down as the arm triggers released, sending the fist to its target. The combined force of the power shpt coming down with a descending Jaeger struck the Kaiju on the side of the head hard enough to crack the bone of its face. The two eyes on that side burst with the force of the punch as it went rolling for nearly five hundred feet. It staggered to its feet, clearly dazed badly by the force of the hit, before turning its attention to its attacker. _Angel_ took a fighting stance, hands held forward with palms down and feet shoulder-width apart, as the Kaiju roared at them. It was an ugly thing, a muscular body with a pair of curved horns on the sides of its head and two massive arms flanked by two smaller ones, and its tail was capped with an axe-like club.

Daiman looked at Carmen and nodded, "This is for real now, Carmen. We got this."

The Kaiju charged at them with a wide swing that _Angel_ ducked to avoid, coming up with a cross to the face that was quickly followed by another to the other side. Undeterred, the Kaiju swung again and _Angel_ ducked to avoid being clobbered. They came up with both fists clenched together, landing a solid double uppercut to the beast's jaw. The hit sent it flying onto its back into the water and it rolled over to try to get up. Before it could stand, _Angel_ came over with both fists raised high and brought them down hard on its head.

"Again!" Daiman called the next shot as they raised the arms again and pounded it on the skull a second time. Any other creature's brain would be mush with the abuse this thing's head had taken, but Kaijus had incredibly thick skulls to prevent that.

"Again!" _Angel_ raised their arms to hammer it a third time when the Kaiju suddenly rose up and grabbed them by the forearms. It shoved them back for several dozen feet before they regained their footing and pushed back.

"Push! Push!" Daiman and Carmen heaved hard against the Kaiju, fairly well matched for strength. The Kaiju returned in kind as it pushed against them, chomping its jaws at them as it tried to get a good bite.

Carmen shook her head, "Dang! These things are ugly up close."

Daiman huffed in return, "They ain't too pretty from a distance either. Throw its weight my way!" _Angel_ leaned left to throw the Kaiju's girth to the side, throwing it face down in the water. As it went down, its tail came around to strike _Angel_ once on the arm and then on the shoulder, staggering them back.

Carmen shook her head to clear it, "Wow. That hurt."

"It did more than hurt." Daiman brought the left arm around to where they both could see it, revealing a shallow mark in the armor, "It scratched the paint." He looked at the Kaiju getting to its feet, "Now I'm pissed. Let's kill this freak!"

_Angel_ came around into a hard right cross, hitting the same spot on the Kaiju's head they'd pounded to start the fight. They followed up with a left cross, and a right uppercut came quickly after that, all connecting solidly. Following the uppercut, _Angel_ raised their arm and brought the elbow down hard on the creature's head, dropping the Kaiju to its knees. _Angel_ grabbed the horns with both hands, bringing their knee up hard into the creature's jaw to knock it back into the water and raise a massive splash. In spite of the abuse the Kaiju had just taken, it rolled over and slowly climbed to its feet. _Angel_ charged at it low, catching the Kaiju at the waist and getting a couple good handfuls of skin. They lifted its massive girth over their head before throwing it down headfirst into water again, smashing its head on the ocean floor. At this point, _Gipsy_ finished off their target with a plasma cannon to the neck and turned around to see _Angel_ in the middle of a tussle with a second Kaiju.

"Let's finish it off." Daiman and Carmen clenched their right fists in unison, holograms appearing around their arms as the neural command deployed the assault blades on that side. _Angel_ stepped on the Kaiju's shoulder as it roared up at them, ramming the sword half way into its chest. They pulled up hard, slicing the razor-sharp blade up through its torso and out through its neck. It let out a gurgling snarl as it fell back into the water, dying with a last gasp.

Daiman dropped his arms and started to catch his breath, "Wow. I forgot how much fun that was." He looked at his copilot, "You okay, Carmen?"

Carmen stood there with an amazed look on her face for a long moment before smiling, "We…we did it! We killed it! We just killed that Kaiju!"

Daiman nodded, "Yeah, I know. Are you all right?"

"We killed it! Did you see that? We killed that Kaiju!"

He nodded again, "I know! Now answer my question. Are you all right?"

She finally looked at him, "What? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. But…we killed it! We got the Kaiju!"

Daiman smiled, "We sure did. That's your first kill and our first kill as a team." He looked at her again, "You did good."

"_That was a good kill, _Angel_._" _Gipsy_ walked up next to them, "_Always check for a pulse, just to be sure._"

"Pulse?" Daiman's brow furrowed, "What do you mean 'check for a pulse'? Do Kaijus even have a pulse?"

_Gipsy_ answered the question by deploying one of their plasma cannons and firing three shots into the Kaiju body, carving a deep hole in the chest and causing several organs to burst.

Daiman nodded, "Oh! I get it. Was that really necessary?"

_Gipsy_ looked at them, "_I lost my brother and had the worst experience of my life because we only thought a Kaiju was dead. Always make sure._" They gave a thumbs up, "_But all the same, good job. I think that cinches your combat-ready certifications. Good work. Let's get back to the dome._"

The next couple of hours saw the two Jaeger teams return to the Shatterdome and tuck their machines into bed for the rest of the day. It had been a trying day, but entirely in a good way. Beckett, Mori, and Rider all had a chance to get back in the saddle after a long while, and Manson had a chance to get her metal wet for the first time. Roll in one Kaiju kill for each team and it was overall a very good day. Daiman walked down the hall of the quartering area of the Shatterdome for a while before turning off to stop at Carmen's door, knocking firmly to make sure she could hear.

"It's open." Her response came muffled through the thick metal hatch, and Daiman turned the crank to open it.

Carmen looked up from what she was doing and smiled, "Oh. Hi, Daiman."

"Hey, Carmen." Daiman leaned on the door frame, "Just wanted to see how you're doing after everything that happened today."

Carmen snickered and shook her head, "I have to admit, I'm still riding the high from that Kaiju kill."

Rider smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I was the same way after my first kill." He shifted his weight a little, "I just wanted to say you did good out there. Especially how you aimed that power shot. That was expert."

Her eyes widened and she smiled, "Oh. Well, thank you. You're pretty good yourself."

Daiman pointed over his shoulder, "Hey, uh, I was headed to the mess hall to grab some lunch. Did you want to join me?"

Carmen shook her head and pointed to a pile of papers on her table, "I would, but I'm really busy. The marshal wants me to finish up a review course on conn-pod systems. I appreciate the offer, though."

Daiman shrugged, "I understand. The invitation's always open." He turned to leave her alone, "See ya, Carmen."

She nodded as he pulled the door closed behind him, "See ya, Daiman." Carmen watched as the door closed after him, taking a moment to reflect on her copilot. She'd started out hating his guts. The whole reason she'd gone to talk him out of leaving yesterday was for the sake of their duty as Rangers. But now that she'd seen him in action and had gotten to know him, Carmen could see that there actually was a person underneath all that muscle, anger, and gung-ho spirit; a person who'd been hurt just like she had been. And a person who was actually rather pleasant to be with if you could get around his overly confident attitude. Carmen snickered to herself as she went back to work. She was almost curious to see what would come of this team-up.


	5. 4: Next Steps

4: Next Steps

Everyone gathered in the briefing room off of the LOCCENT control room. Henson had called the meeting to get the skinny on how everything was going with the new revived Jaeger Program. In attendance were Choi with a report on how the Jaegers were coming alone, and Raleigh and Mako to report how training of the new pilots was progressing. Daiman and Carmen were there because Henson wanted them in the know about what was going on, as well. Everyone was seated at the long table, with the marshal at the far end with the window overlooking the Shatterdome.

Herc walked in holding a tablet that he set down before taking a seat, "Thank you all for coming. The council's been riding my back about a status report. I figured I should stop ignoring them now and get one. Besides, I need to know how things are going, also." He looked at Tendo, "Mr. Choi?"

Tendo sat back in his seat, "We're looking really good with the Jaegers. We've finished the last three Jaegers, they just need pilots now, and we've taken delivery of assembled portions for two more. They should be ready to roll in about two to three months. Overall, we're on schedule and looking good."

"Sounds good." Herc looked at Raleigh, "Mr. Beckett?"

Raleigh took a breath as he shifted in his seat, "I wish our report was as nice. Training the new Rangers is going well, but it's going slow. With only two of us, there's only so much we can do right now. At our current pace, we won't be able to crew the remaining three Jaegers for another three to four weeks."

The marshal nodded, "I understand. Do what you can. I'll see if I can sugar-coat it for the council." He looked around as he stood, "If no one else has anything to add, then–"

"Wait a minute." Daiman spoke up from his end of the table, "Aren't we going to talk about the Kaiju attack yesterday?"

Herc looked at him quietly for a long moment before nodding, "Apparently, we are now, since you brought it up, Mr. Rider. What's your concern?"

"Yesterday's attack shows that the Kaijus' numbers are growing fast. They're getting bold enough to start coming after us again. Aren't we going to do something about that?"

Herc nodded slowly, "We are doing something about it. We're building up our force to be able to counter the Kaijus next time they attack."

Rider shook his head, "Respectfully, sir, that plan is very retroactive. We need a proactive solution. We need to hit back."

"Need I remind you, Mr. Rider, that we only have five Jaegers, only two of which are operational, yourself included in that. We don't have adequate forces to even think about a counterattack right now. We're doing all that we can by building up our forces."

Daiman nodded, "I understand, sir, but we–"

"We won't discuss this further, Ranger." Herc looked around the table, "If there's nothing else, then we're dismissed." Rider rolled his eyes before standing and leaving the room in a huff, Carmen's gaze following him as he left.

Rider sat on the edge of the platform in front of _Angel Horizon_'s dock, watching as the small army of techs worked on the massive machine, making sure everything about her was spot-on perfect. They'd offered to clean up and remove the scratch on the left arm where the Kaiju had hit them, but Daiman had passed them up on it. He wanted to keep it, one of their first marks of combat, a battle scar from their first fight.

"I suppose the new question is why you come out here and stare at our Jaeger when you're upset." Daiman's head turned as he heard Carmen's voice from over his shoulder.

He looked up at her, "This another head-shrinking session?"

"Only if you make it one." Carmen sat down next to him, "What's bothering you, D?"

Daiman looked at her, "'D'?"

She shrugged, "It's shorter than 'Daiman'. Easier to say."

He chuckled in return, "Wow. And I thought I was lazy." Daiman's gaze fell and he swung his legs once, "I just don't think it's a good idea, sitting around waiting for the Kaijus to attack again. I feel like we might as well serve ourselves up on a silver platter with an apple in our mouth. It's asking for trouble."

Carmen nodded slowly, "Maybe. But the marshal's right, D. Two Jaegers isn't exactly an army. We need a bigger force before we can do any damage."

Daiman nodded, "I know. Doesn't make it any less frustrating."

"Actually, I had a thought on that note." Carmen bit her lip for a moment before continuing, "I was thinking that maybe we could offer to help train the new pilots."

Daiman looked at her with wide eyes, "Are you serious?"

Carmen nodded, "Beckett said it was going slowly with only two trainers. We could double that number and help them out. You're frustrated with the fact that we don't have the forces to hit the Kaijus right now. This would be the best way to build our forces faster so we can hit back sooner."

Rider smiled and shook his head, "Carmen, we only got re-certified for combat ourselves yesterday. Do you really think that's a good idea, having a has-been and a rookie training new pilots?"

"A has-been and a rookie who killed a Kaiju on their own. That right there says we know what we're doing at least a little."

Daiman stifled his next objection in light of her reasoning, "Hmm. I suppose it sounds more credible when you put it like that." His lip twisted in thought for a moment, "You know…we can at least give it a shot. I'll be meeting with Henson in a few minutes. I can run it by him then, see what he thinks."

Carmen nodded, "Okay. Do you want me to be there?"

Daiman snorted a chuckle loudly, "It was your idea in the first place. You'd dang well better be there."

"Okay. I'll be there." She chuckled in return before looking out at the Jaeger in front of them, "So you never answered my question. Why do you come out and look at our Jaeger when you're upset?"

Daiman shrugged as he looked out at _Angel_ again, "Lingering habit from the old days. It makes it all more personal to me. Seeing the Jaeger, watching the sparks fall, hearing the machinery, and then remembering that that massive machine is a part of me…it makes me feel strong." He leaned back on his arms as he watched, "When Kenny and I were on first-response call, we couldn't sleep some times, so we'd come out to the Shatterdome and just watch as the night shift maintained our Jaeger. Those were the times when we'd really just talk, just build a bond as copilots and as friends." Daiman shook his head, "I miss that nut."

Carmen folded her arms on her knees and rested her chin on them, "What was he like? Your old copilot, Kenny?"

Daiman chuckled lightly, "Kenny was something else. You didn't meet Kenny; you experienced him. He wasn't a person; he was a life event. Put him in a Jaeger and he was serious as a heart attack. Outside the conn-pod, though, you'd think he was bat-crap insane. Which was really funny, because he was always the one who would say my ideas were too risky in combat. I think he just didn't like the competition; didn't want to admit that someone could out-crazy him."

Carmen nodded subtly, "What about your old Jaeger? You haven't said much about that."

Rider smiled as he remembered, "_Ascending Sword_. She was a beast of a machine. Couldn't hold a candle to a Mark VI, but _Sword_ was a monster for a Mark III. I especially liked the paint job; jet black with lightning details on the arms, legs, and shoulders. Her primary weapon was a huge sword in the right arm lined with plasma jets along the edge. When the jets were on, it looked like the blade was made of lightning. That thing could tear it up. Our second kill, we cut that Kaiju in half right down the middle with that weapon. That Jaeger was a beast."

"What happened to her?"

Daiman shrugged, "Decommissioned and disassembled for parts. She kind of needed it, though. _Sword_ was one of the first Mark IIIs ever produced, and she was starting to show her age toward the end. I did a little homework and found out that a lot of _Sword_'s parts were refurbished and used in the Mark III Restoration Project for the original _Gipsy Danger_. So, in a way, you could say that _Sword_ helped close the Breach."

Carmen rested her chin on her arms again, "It sounds like I missed out on the good ole' days."

"Yeah. I suppose you did." Rider smirked and looked at Carmen, "You should've dropped out of college sooner." They both chuckled at the stupid comment before Daiman checked his watch, "Well, I've got to go see Henson. Shall we?"

Carmen nodded as she stood with him, "Let's go."

Up in the LOCCENT control room, Marshal Henson was overseeing several things when Carmen and Daiman walked in. Carmen dropped back as Daiman approached the older Ranger and saluted smartly.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

Herc finished signing off on something before dismissing the aid and returning the salute, "I wanted to talk to you about your comments in the briefing earlier, Mr. Rider." He turned to face Daiman as he took a step closer, his volume dropping noticeably, "I wanted you to know that I agree with what you said in there, and I didn't want to leave you thinking you were in any kind of trouble. I believe we have to hit back, but the logistic say we just can't right now. We can't fight a war without an army. We're doing the best we can with what we have, and rest assured as soon as we can hit back, we're going to drop the hammer hard. I'm on your side with this, but I need you to assure me that there won't be any more interruptions or outbursts like that until we're ready to go. Can I get your word on that?"

Daiman nodded firmly, "Yes, sir."

"Thank you." Henson returned the nod before turning away, "That was all, Mr. Rider. You're–"

"Sir, Carmen and I had an idea that we thought you'd be interested in." Daiman took a breath before continuing, "We wanted to offer our services as additional instructors to help train the new pilots."

Herc's eyes widened as he looked at Daiman, "You and Ms. Manson training the new Rangers?"

Daiman nodded firmly, "We're both combat-certified and can double the current training team, sir."

The marshal looked out the window for a moment before nodding, "Well, you did make a good Kaiju kill the other day. That says you at least know what you're doing." He was quiet for another moment before looking at Daiman, "We'll give it a shot. I'll get you on the training roster. See me tomorrow 0700 sharp for your first assignment."

Rider nodded firmly in return, "Thank you, sir." With Henson's dismissal, Daiman turned to where Carmen was waiting and she gave him an expectant look.

He smiled and shrugged, "He's gonna give us a shot. We'll get our first assignment tomorrow 0700."

Carmen returned his smile, "Sweet. I think we can really make a difference here, D. We can do this."

It was true. They could make a difference in training the new Rangers. They were trained and skilled pilots, both confident in their abilities, and both experienced in light of recent events. And given that Daiman was chomping at the bit to get some action, this would also help get the Jaeger force up to speed sooner. This would make a difference, but neither of them understood what difference it would make.

############

The days started to go by quickly as Daiman and Carmen fell into their new role helping Raleigh and Mako with the training. Tendo stayed employed with maintaining the Jaegers and getting them ready for their soon-coming crews while Herc occupied himself with avoiding tele-conferences with the PPDC Council. Everyone fell into a routine. Raleigh, Daiman, Mako, and Carmen went about training the new recruits; Tendo made his rounds through the Jaegers, maintaining and upgrading them wherever possible; the two doctors, Giezler and Gotleib, kept an eye on the Kaiju situation; and Herc went about making sure the machine ran smoothly while ensuring that his tele-con connection remained "down for maintenance". It wasn't long before the Ranger teams started graduating the training course and started getting their combat certifications one at a time. Daiman and Carmen found it interesting that they'd only been recertified not long ago themselves, and now they were handing out the certifications.

Tendo brought yet another cup of coffee to his station in the LOCCENT control room and sat down. It had been two full weeks since Herc had brought Raleigh and Mako back into the program. Things were going well. The five Jaegers that were finished were ready to go and fully upgraded per their specs, still with the showroom finish on most of them. He'd been hearing good reports from Beckett and Mori that the new class of Rangers was coming along nicely. Over all, the program was on track.

A nearby bio-sensor monitor started sounding a tone, bringing Tendo's head around to look at it. The first tone was soon joined by a second tone. Then a third, and a fourth. He rolled his chair over and looked at the readings, his eyes widening when he saw it. The AI started announcing the detection and everyone in LOCCENT started scurrying around in response.

"What do we have, Mr. Choi?" Herc stepped up behind Tendo, looking over the holo-screens.

Tendo pushed back to his station and started making adjustments, "Four Kaiju signatures detected just a minute ago. They're on course for the south China coastline, and they'll be there in a little over an hour."

Herc nodded slowly, "So it's time, then. Scramble the first-response team."

"Roger that." Tendo nodded, "Scrambling first-response team. Sending the…Whoa."

"What's wrong?"

Tendo shook his head, "Nothing's wrong. It's what's right. I was expecting only three Jaeger teams to be ready by now. Inventory says we have five."

The marshal smirked, "That sounds like a good problem to me, Mr. Choi."

"I agree, sir. Scrambling all five teams now. Sending the call order." Within fifteen minutes, all five teams were gathered in LOCCENT for the briefing, all set up in their drive suits that matched their Jaegers. Daiman came in last holding his helmet under his arm and found Carmen toward the back of the crowd.

He joined her and touched her shoulder to get her attention, "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing." Carmen glanced at him and shook her head, "He was about to start."

"All right, teams. Listen up!" Tendo stood in front of them and got their attention, "There is a group of four Kaijus headed for the south Chinese coast about ten minutes' flight north of Hong Kong. Kaijus are as follows: one Category IV, call-name 'Skullbite'; two Category III's, call-names 'Mogwai' and 'Carnivore'; one Category II, call-name 'Intruder'. They'll make landfall within the hour. You are deploying to intercept them."

Herc stepped up and took over, "You'll be deploying to the miracle mile off the Chinese coastline north of Hong Kong. This is the largest number of Kaijus that have attacked to date. You'll outnumber them only by one, so don't toss any shots. Remember, this is combat, but it's just as much a performance, as well. We'll be under the public eye here, so we need to make this count. We need to show the people that the Kaijus are back, but the Jaegers are back also." He motioned to the _Gipsy Danger_ team, "Beckett has operational command once you're out there. He'll sort out order of battle when you arrive. Let's do this!" The Jaeger teams all let out a cheer before dispersing to get to their conn-pods.

"Hey, guys." On their way out, Tendo got a hold of _Gipsy_ and _Angel_ teams, "Wanted to let you know before you took off that we've finally finished the Twins' weapon upgrades. You now have two missile tubes behind panels in each shoulder for four missiles; each one holds an AKM II shaped-charge warhead and can fire underwater if needed. And you now have blade whips for more reach and power at the cost of piercing strength. You've got a nice little box of toys to play with now."

Daiman's brow rose, "Blade whips? Me likey."

Raleigh nodded in return, "Thanks, Tendo. Let's bring the pain, team." He and Mako headed for their Jaeger with Daiman and Carmen following.

Daiman looked at Carmen as they walked, "What do you think? Another notch on our belt?"

Carmen looked back at Daiman and smiled, "Let's let them know who _Angel Horizon_ is." The pair did a fist bump as they turned off to their Jaeger bay, Raleigh and Mako continuing on to theirs. Within a matter of minutes, the five Jaegers were each chained up to their own quartet of helicopters and on their way to the drop zone. Daiman panned a visual sensor off to their left to see the harbors of Hong Kong as they passed by. Even after three years, the places where _Gipsy Danger_ took down the Double Event Kaijus, Leatherback and Otachi, were still under reconstruction.

"_All right, guys._" Beckett's voice came over the comm, "_Here's how we're going to do this once we get there. _Gipsy Danger_ will engage Skullbite. _Angel Horizon_ and _Tango Courageous_ will engage Mogwai and Carnivore. _Mu-onna Ronin_ will engage Intruder. _Karma Delta_ will remain in reserve in case one of us needs help. All teams acknowledge._"

Daiman reached up to the comm panel, "_Angel_ copies." One by one, the remaining teams all confirmed the order of battle. Upon arriving at the drop zone, all team were let loose to get into position. Carmen whooped a cheer as _Angel_ dropped to the ocean below. Once they were all on the ground, the Jaegers formed a line in preparation for the Kaijus' arrival, with _Karma_ behind the line in reserve. It was an imposing sight to be sure, four Jaegers lined up and ready for a fight. Out in the distance where the continental shelf ended, the Kaijus surfaced one at a time, the largest of them first, as they continued toward the line of defenders.

In the _Gipsy Danger_ conn-pod, Raleigh looked out at the group of Kaijus approaching and frowned. He zoomed in on the lead one and eyeballed its size.

He hit the comm button, "LOCCENT, we have a problem."

Back in the control room, Herc grabbed the mike boom, "We can't afford problems on this drop, _Gipsy_. What's wrong?"

Beckett sent his brief sensor analysis of the leading Kaiju to LOCCENT, "Skullbite's way too big to be a Cat IV, sir. Skullbite is Category V."

The marshal nodded, "We copy. Adjust order of battle as necessary."

Raleigh nodded and hit the comm switch, "All right, team. New OOB as follows: _Gipsy_ engages Skullbite; _Angel_ will assist. _Ronin_ and _Tango_ are on Carnivore and Mogwai. _Karma_ will engage Intruder. All Jaegers acknowledge."

Over in _Angel_'s head, Daiman hit the comm switch, "_Angel_ copies." He shook his head, "Peachy. We haven't even engaged yet and the plan's already screwed."

Carmen shrugged, "The first casualty of any engagement is always the plan."

He huffed in return, "Ain't that the dang truth." He looked at her, "What do you think? How're we gonna do this?"

She looked back at him, "Those whips sounded promising."

"I agree." Daiman hit the control to activate them, "Let's give them a spin." Panels on the inside of both of _Angel_'s forearms opened up, allowing a pair of handle devices to slide into them. From there, the blade whips extended to almost as long as the Jaeger was tall, dramatically increasing their reach in combat. They swung their arms around once and crossed them on the downswing, cracking the whips with a loud, low snap in front of them.

"_You kids have fun with your new toys._" _Gipsy_ looked at them from nearby and activated one of their assault blade swords, "_We're going old school. Standard two-team formation. We'll come in direct while you flank. Let's do this._"

Skullbite rose onto two legs as it closed to attack distance. It was a massive thing, a large, muscular body with a hammerhead skull, two massive fused arms with long claws on each finger, and three tails with the middle longer than the other two. It charged forward and swung at _Gipsy_, the Jaeger stepping back to avoid it. They counterattacked by stepping in and striking with their sword, clawing a wound from Skullbite's left shoulder up to its neck. They came back with the blade to strike across the chest, further injuring the Kaiju before it had a chance to attack again.

"Let's help them out." Daiman gave the order as _Angel_ started snapping their arms to gain momentum on the blade whips before stepping forward to strike. The tips of the whips came in fast and struck hard, slicing open two large wounds on Skullbite's left side. They repeated the attack, slicing a crisscross of cuts over the ones they'd just made, causing the Kaiju to roar.

Daiman nodded as they took another swing, "Let's pour it on!" Suddenly, they felt two large arms grab them from behind, one around their neck and the other around their shoulder. One of the other Kaiju, Mogwai to be precise, a massive ape-like creature, had grabbed them from behind.

Carmen looked at Daiman as they struggled against it, "It's got us in a grapple! We need to get out of this!"

"I've got an idea. Hit the jump jets!"

"What good will that do?"

"Just do it!" She hit the control to activate the rear jets, though with the added weight of a Kaiju, they wouldn't be able to lift the Jaeger. The flaming exhaust from the jets burned Mogwai holding their back. A loud sizzle of searing flesh could be heard as the Kaiju screamed in pain. It finally let go of them and staggered back, favoring the burns on its sides.

"_Sorry about that, _Angel_._" _Tango Courageous_ came over and grabbed Mogwai's shoulder to pull it back, clocking it in the face as they did, "_The blighter slipped away from us. Won't happen again._"

"No problem, _Tango_." Daiman looked at their original target, Skullbite, who _Gipsy_ had been keeping gainfully employed for the time being, "I got this." He took over temporarily as he reared _Angel_'s arms back and snapped them forward, sending the whips to their target. The left arm whip slapped down on Skullbite's back, sinking the blades in deep. The right whip wrapped half its length around the leftmost tail. Daiman then pulled back hard, yanking the deeply sunken blades from where they were. The left whip opened a large weeping wound on Skullbite's back and the other sliced the tail it was wrapped around clean off, the severed appendage falling into the water. Skullbite roared loudly with the pain and turned to take a swing at _Angel_. With turning its attention, _Gipsy_ came in and sank their sword in deep to the Kaiju's side. Around them, _Tango_ finished off Mogwai with several punches to the stomach before deploying one of their assault blades and plunging it into the creature's guts, slicing it upward to maximize the damage and ensure its lethality. They stabbed it in the neck one more time to "check for a pulse" before turning to help _Ronin_ in dealing with Carnivore, who already wasn't long for this world with the beating _Ronin_ was giving it. It wouldn't be long before this fight was over.

Skullbite pulled itself off of _Gipsy_'s blade and turned away, plunging into the water and heading away from the attacking Jaegers. _Gipsy_ switched their free hand to the plasma cannon, but didn't fire when their target vanished.

"Yeah!" Daiman cheered loudly, "That's right! Who's the man?! Run away, you little pansy-willow! Bring back a few friends to make it an even fight next time!"

Carmen shook her head, "I wouldn't celebrate just yet, D. Retreating isn't typical Kaiju behavior."

He shrugged in response, "Who cares? They came, they saw, we beat the crap out of them."

"_She's right, _Angel_._" Raleigh's voice came over the channel as _Gipsy_ looked around, "_Kaiju don't run unless for a dang good reason. Stay frosty._"

"_This is _Karma Delta_._" A Philippino voice came over the comm, "_We're at a stalemate with this Kaiju. We could use some help here._"

Daiman hit to comm switch, "_Angel_ copies, _Karma_. Be right there." They turned around and went to where _Karma_ was fighting Intruder a few hundred feet away. _Karma_ was designed to sacrifice a little bit of armor to be quick on the attack and light on their feet, and they were doing precisely that as they dodged one attack after another as the shark-like Kaiju swung at them repeatedly. _Angel_ reared back with one arm and snapped it forward, sending the whip to its target and wrapping it several times around the creature's head.

"Go for it, _Karma_!" They didn't respond as they stepped in and attacked, deploying a stiletto blade from below their arm. They jammed the blade in and out of the Kaiju's chest several times, the last time actually punching their fist clean through its carapace and out the back. They wrenched the blade upward once before dropping the body, the Kaiju being assuredly dead. _Angel_ shut down their whip, closing the blades and pulling it back into the arm stowage.

_Karma_ looked at them, "_Thanks, _Angel._ Does this mean we share the kill?_"

"Nope." Daiman shook his head, _Angel_ following his movement, "We get an assist, but the kill's yours, _Karma_. That's your first. Congratulations." _Karma_ nodded in return as both pilots could be heard celebrating over the comm.

Carmen suddenly checked a screen that started flashing, "Kaiju signature! Port side!"

Daiman looked at her, "What?" Before they could figure out what was going on, a massive splash heralded an equally massive Kaiju surfacing out of nowhere. The wounds all over its body marked it as Skullbite, apparently back for round two. It roared as it quickly smashed _Angel_ across the chest with the back of its arm, throwing them off their feet into the water.

Daiman shook his head to clear it before hitting the comm switch, "_Karma_, Skullbite's a Cat V! Get out of here! Get out of here now!"

"_We're trying, but–_" The signal cut as Skullbite grabbed _Karma_ by the shoulders and pulled them down into the water before raising its forearms and bringing them down to smash the helpless Jaeger again and again.

"No!" Daiman's face contorted with anger, "Come on, Carmen! We gotta get up!" By the time _Angel_ got to their feet, Skullbite had struck _Karma_ nearly half a dozen times. _Angel_ deployed one of their plasma cannons and started shooting at Skullbite, the first shot missing but the following two hitting it in the back of the shoulder. Skullbite roared at them before turning and plunging into the water, vanishing under the surface.

_Angel_ ran to _Karma_'s side and stood over them as Daiman hit the comm, "LOCCENT, this is _Angel Horizon_. _Karma Delta_ is down! Repeat: Jaeger down! Need rescue choppers on site stat! I say again–"

"_There's no point,_ Angel." _Gipsy_ stepped up beside them, "_Look at the conn-pod._" Daiman looked at _Karma Delta_'s conn-pod, or at least what was left of it. Like much of the Jaeger's upper torso area, the conn-pod was badly smashed and crumpled. No one could have survived that. Carmen hung her head silently while Daiman shook his in utter disbelief. Daiman heard _Gipsy_ calling in for salvage teams, but it didn't register in his brain as he stared vacantly at the destroyed Jaeger. It was a grim reminder that the Jaegers, no matter how well designed and well trained they were, were not invincible. The Kaiju were more than happy to remind them of that fact.

############

Herc stared out the window overlooking the Shatterdome. Everyone else who'd survived the last mission was seated around the table in the room behind him. The pilot teams of _Gipsy Danger_, _Angel Horizon_, _Tango Courageous_, and _Mu-onna Ronin_ all sat quietly, knowing what had just happened not long ago. Two seats stood ominously empty on the other side of the table. Herc stood there for a long time, looking out the window at the empty bay next to _Ronin_, the bay that normally housed _Karma Delta_.

He finally turned around to the table, "I had a feeling something like this would happen. I'd hoped I was just being paranoid, but it's clear that we just weren't ready yet. Not for a Category V." He started pacing slowly, "It's clear that the Kaijus have enough numbers to start trying to attack again. And with our team down one Jaeger now, our response is limited. We're going to have to tread carefully for here on out." Herc looked to his left, "Dr. Giezler. You said you had something that was pertinent?"

Newt nodded as he came over, dropping a pile of reports on the corner of the table and shuffling through it, "I was able to run tests on the Kaiju blood recovered from the water after the battle. The Category V, Skullbite, is apparently a 'she', and she's been reproducing rather prolifically. My tests indicate that not only was she pregnant at the time of the battle, but it's likely her fourth pregnancy. Also, blood samples from the other three Kaiju, the ones that were killed, indicate that they were all Skullbite's offspring. So if the 'mother bear' idea holds true with Kaiju, I wouldn't want to be anywhere nearby when Skullbite shows herself again."

Herc nodded slowly, "That's disturbing news. Not only are the Kaijus breeding, but the Category V's are breeding also, which means more Cat V's are going to start showing up. It's clear that we need to do something, and soon. I just don't know what yet." He ran his hand through his hair once, "We'll meet again tomorrow morning, 0700 sharp. We need some time to go through the data. Everyone get some rest. Dismissed."

As the teams started to file out of the room, Daiman sat in his chair for a while longer, staring vacantly ahead of him. He'd heard everything that was said, but his mind wasn't on the debriefing. He shook his head as he stood and headed out of the room, Carmen watching him as he left. She didn't like what she saw rolling around in her copilot's head, and she made a mental note to check on him later. Things had been set in motion that no one was prepared for. Soon, everyone have to respond to the situation, ready or not.

############

Daiman threw another series of punches at the bag, landing them all very solidly. He'd been in the Shatterdome gym by himself for a couple of hours trying unsuccessfully to burn off the steam of the day's events. He just couldn't believe it. Gone; they were gone in just a moment. _Karma Delta_ was the least experienced of the team because they graduated from training last. It wasn't right that the young bucks of the program were the first to go since the war restarted. Daiman chained several punches at the bag, putting his anger into them to try to burn it off. He ended the chain with rotating into a roundhouse kick that caused the bag to sway. He shook his head to throw sweat out of his hair before taking his fighting stance again.

"Are you all right?" He looked to the source of the voice to find Carmen walking into the gym.

Daiman nodded, "I'm fine." He started another series of strikes only to be stopped halfway through when Carmen caught his arm before he could throw a punch.

She looked at his fist and shook her head, "Your knuckles don't say you're fine." Daiman looked at his knuckles to see what she was referring to, the cracked and bleeding skin of overused fists standing as evidence against his claim.

"My knuckles need to learn to shut the heck up." Carmen released his arm as Daiman turned to go grab his towel, "What do you want, Carmen?"

Carmen walked over to sit down on the bench next to him, "I want to make sure you're okay. You took _Karma_ going down pretty hard. Did you want to talk about it?"

"No." Daiman toweled off his hair.

She reached up to touch his arm, "Daiman, don't do this to me. You're not just my copilot; you're my friend. I want to make sure you're okay. You know you can talk to me."

The stubborn young Ranger let out a deep breath before sitting down on the bench, "They're gone, Carmen. Just…gone. I've seen Jaegers go down before, but this…this was totally different."

Carmen leaned forward, "Why's that?"

"When I saw Jaeger teams go down before, I had no connection with them. I catalogued the loss and moved on. I never knew them, so there was never a need for more than that. But _Karma_…I knew them. We knew them." Daiman looked at Carmen, "We poured our lives into those recruits, Carmen. For a short time, yes, but we still invested ourselves in them. We did our best to make sure they were prepared for this." He threw his towel down on the floor, "And then that freak-show Skullbite comes along and shows that there really is no way to be ready."

Carmen nodded somberly once, "I understand how you feel, Daiman. But you can't let yourself get stuck on this. You have to move on."

"I don't want to move on!" Daiman glared at her, almost cutting her off, "I want to get even. The Kaijus have taken enough from me for one lifetime. I don't want them taking this without a mark to show for it."

Carmen nodded as she put her hand on his sweaty shoulder, "I understand, Daiman. I want revenge, too. Skullbite killed _our_ recruits; they were just as much my students as they were yours. I want to take Skullbite down for what it did, but now is not the right time. We have to be patient." She scooted closer to Daiman, "There's an old proverb that goes 'the patient hunter always gets its prey'. That's what Jaegers are; it's German for 'hunter'. We have to be patient. If we're the patient hunter, the patient Jaeger, we'll get our prey. Skullbite's days are numbered." She stood up quickly, "Now I think we need to get your mind off of this for a while. So you go get cleaned up, and then we can go get a snack from the mess hall before it closes. Then you can walk me back to my room."

Daiman looked up at her, "That doesn't sound like a suggestion."

She nodded firmly in return, "That's because it isn't."

He furrowed his brow, "Who said you could start ordering me around?"

"On my authority as a woman." She pointed to the other end of the gym, "Now go. You know where the showers are. Get going."

Daiman chuckled as he picked up his towel and headed to the showers, "Wow. So much for me being in command on this team." Daiman got showered up before he and Carmen went to go claim a couple of snacks from the mess hall. After dropping her off at her room for the night, he took a short walk around the quartering area to think. It wasn't the right time for revenge, but that time would come soon enough. The resolve hardened as he closed the door to his room behind him. When the time came, he would make sure _Karma Delta_ was avenged.


	6. 5: Fools Rush In

5: Fools Rush In

The group of Jaeger teams met the next morning at 0700 as Marshal Henson had ordered. Everyone gathered in the briefing room off the LOCCENT control room. Daiman and Carmen came in last and took seats at the far end of the table. Dr. Giezler came in and sat down in the only remaining seat near them. Once 0700 rolled around, Herc came in and set his tablet down before straightening up.

"Thank you all for coming. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Skullbite left a pheromone trail back to what we believe is the nesting ground. We have the exact location, about ten miles southwest of where the Breach used to be. The bad news is that the area is swarming with almost two dozen Kaijus. That's the largest number of Kaiju that have been on this planet to date, and they're all in one place. And we've only got four Jaegers."

"Sir?" Daiman raised his hand cautiously and Henson recognized him, "I know I've said this before, but I really think we need to do something here. The Kaijus' numbers are growing fast, and the Cat V's reproducing could become a huge problem. If we don't do something now, we might not get a chance."

Herc nodded graciously, "I'm well aware of that, Mr. Rider. We already have a five-megaton nuclear device to destroy the nesting ground. The problem is that we have only four Jaegers against two dozen Kaijus to deliver it. But, you are right. We have to do something." He looked around the table, "I'm open to suggestions."

The room was silent for a long moment before Newt spoke up, "We could distract them."

Henson looked at the doctor, "Could you explain that, Newt?"

Giezler shifted in his chair, "Well, thanks to our… rather seedy relationship with the illustrious Hannibal Chau, I've come into possession of a pheromone gland from a Category IV Kaiju, and I know how to stimulate it to secrete pheromones. If we couple that with a recorded Kaiju distress call, it should give us an effective Kaiju decoy. We can set it up about five or ten miles away from the nesting ground to draw the Kaijus off."

Herc nodded as he listened, "How effective do you think this decoy will be?"

Newt shrugged, "Optimistically, it will draw off all but a few of them for about an hour. It all depends on how well I set it up and how long the pheromone gland lasts."

The marshal nodded to him, "Get on it. Do the best you can. You've got four hours." Newt nodded and split out of the room as Herc looked around, "I want all Jaeger teams readied up. If Giezler's idea works, it'll create a short window that you can used to deliver the nuke and get out. Since they're more heavily armored, _Mu-onna Ronin_ will carry and deploy the bomb. The weapon techs will walk you through it. Everyone else runs defense." He leaned forward on the table, "We've only got one shot at this. We fail, and it could mean a Kaiju epidemic and the end of life as we know it. We can't afford to screw this up. Get to it."

Everyone was busy for the next four hours while Newt cooked up his little gizmo. Each team had to oversee the techs prepping their Jaegers to make sure they were ready for the mission. Daiman watched as the cranes slowly loaded a missile into one of _Angel_'s launch tubes. He looked across the way to see another set of cranes reattaching _Tango_'s left arm after removing it for maintenance. Next to them, _Ronin_ was being fitted with the bomb they were going to use to destroy the nesting ground, a massive plasma nuke that weighed over a ton and had a yield of five million tons of TNT. Daiman nodded absently to himself as he watched. This was the big one. They had to succeed. Failing this mission wasn't an option. There was no going back.

About twenty minutes after the deadline, Newt finally came through with his Kaiju decoy. He took a chopper to deploy it at the best point to draw the Kaijus away from their nesting ground while the remaining chopper teams carried the four Jaegers out to the drop point, about five miles west of the target.

A few minutes out from the drop, Daiman reached up and killed the comm panel before looking at Carmen, "Mission or not, you know why I'm here. If Skullbite's down there, she's going down."

Carmen looked hard at him, "The mission takes priority, Daiman."

"You can't lie to me about this, Carmen." He pointed at his head in reference to the drift link they presently shared, "We'll stay on the mission, but if we get a shot at Skullbite, we take it. I know you want revenge, too."

She was quiet for a long moment before looking ahead again, "For the record…you're right."

Daiman turned on the comms again just in time for the choppers to call in, "_Carry lead to _Angel Horizon_, time to drop, thirty seconds._"

He hit the switch, "_Angel_ copies, carry lead." He laced his fingers and cracked his knuckles, "Let's do this." The choppers released them and the Jaeger dropped down into the ocean below, sinking up to their waist in the water before hitting the floor. The other three Jaegers hit the water around them with _Gipsy_ up front.

Beckett's voice came over the channel, "_All teams, seal all ports. Prepare to submerge._"

Carmen touched a couple of controls as Daiman hit the comm switch, "All ports sealed. Ready to submerge." The quartet of Jaeger trudged forward, descending the continental slope to complete submerge in the water. Carmen and Daiman saw a shoal of fish in front of their face that quickly scattered and swam away. They continued on for several minutes until the surface of the water was far above them. Visibility kept dropping, and all four Jaegers kicked in their flood lights to illuminate the mysterious darkness around them.

Daiman looked at his copilot, "Remember, Carmen. Underwater combat tactics: fists can't get enough speed to do damage, so we have to rely on our blades."

Carmen nodded in return, "Hopefully, we won't have to use them."

"I'm hoping we do have to. Our swords have Skullbite's name on them."

"_Visibility's zero. Switching to instruments._" Raleigh came over the comm, "_Three miles to target, no sign of Kaiju. Looks like Newt's gizmo is working so far._" Daiman kept looking around cautiously. In spite of his previous experience as a Ranger, he'd never been on an underwater mission before. On land, the Jaegers ruled. They could kill the Kaijus as they made landfall, sometimes rather easily. But down here, this was their domain, where the Kaijus could strike fast and lethal from the shadows. The Mark VI Jaegers had vastly enhanced sensors to improve detection on the ocean floor, but they still couldn't see very far, and it left them dangerously vulnerable. In spite of her cool demeanor, even Carmen looked nervous about the situation they found themselves in. As they proceeded into the nesting grounds, headed for the center, they could see massive embryo sacks that contained fetal Kaijus, growing in number and size as they got closer to the target.

"_Two miles out and closing. Still no Kaijus._" The comm was quiet for a moment before Beckett came back on, "_Scratch that. Just picked up a Cat IV five hundred meters to port and closing. _Tango_, engage the threat. Everyone else, press to target._"

_Tango_ broke formation and headed to the Kaiju that was investigating their presence, "_Copy that. _Tango_ engaging._"

As they continued on, Carmen drew Daiman's attention to one of her screens, "D, you want to look at this."

He looked at the analysis of a Kaiju about six hundred meters to their starboard, "Category V, badly scarred, missing one tail." His brow hardened, "It's Skullbite."

Carmen looked at him, "What about the mission?"

Daiman shook his head, "They can handle the mission. We have to do this. For _Karma_."

She was quiet for a long moment before nodding, "For _Karma_." Daiman cut the comms as they broke formation and moved to engage.

Over in _Gipsy_'s conn-pod, Mako pointed out that _Angel_ had broken formation and Raleigh hit the comms switch, "_Angel_, you've broken formation. Form up on the double." His answer was a long silence before he hit the switch again, "_Angel_, you're out of formation. Return immediately. Do you copy?" Again, silence came over the comm. Beckett then noticed where they were heading and cursed under his breath, "_Ronin_, press to target. We'll cover you." He shook his head as they continued with the mission. _Angel_ was on their own now.

Daiman looked at Carmen as they continued toward Skullbite, "We're going both swords on this. I want to carve this crap-muncher up like a Christmas turkey." Holograms appeared around both of their forearms as _Angel_'s assault blade swords snapped forward into place. Skullbite turned to see them and rumbled a low roar through the water.

Daiman nodded, "Yeah. Remember us, you freak? Time to even the score."

Skullbite turned and floated toward them, ascending for several meters before she started spinning rapidly, increasing speed as her tails started to spiral quickly.

Daiman saw what Skullbite was preparing for and his eyes widened, "Scissor cross! Now!" He and Carmen lunged forward, crossing their arms over their chest before scissoring their swords apart. The blades caught the trailing end of Skullbite's two remaining tails, cleanly slicing off about half a dozen meters of each. The Kaiju stopped spinning and screamed with the pain, muffled through the water. She swung at them with both arms, _Angel_ sidestepping to avoid the attack before bringing their right sword up to claw across Skullbite's shoulder. The Kaiju then lunged forward, grabbing _Angel_ at the shoulders and pushing them back. Just as they raised their blades for another shot, Skullbite threw them forward, then charged forward herself, ramming her hammer-head into their chest and swimming forward at full speed. _Angel_ was taken off their feet and pushed backward through the water as Skullbite pushed them.

Daiman looked back over their shoulder, "Hold on!" The Jaeger's back smashed hard into a rock formation, crumpling some of the lower hull plates. Skullbite pinned _Angel_'s right arm against the rock as she leaned down and clamped her jaws down hard on the Jaeger's side, sinking her teeth into the metal and crushing it.

Carmen looked around at the flashing screens, "Hull breach! Lower torso! We're taking on water!" _Angel_ reared back with their free arm and swung to stab the Kaiju. The tip of the blade didn't get more than a meter into her skin before Skullbite grabbed their arm and shoved back, pushing the blade away.

Daiman grunted against the strain, "Dang, this thing's strong!" It was then that Skullbite pulled a fast one on them. The tips of all her tails were gone, so she had no more stingers, but the tails still had muscle. She wrapped the two remaining tails around _Angel_'s left leg and squeezed hard, sparks and fluids shooting out as the metal was crushed under the pressure. Daiman was finally able to work the left arm free and swung as hard as he could, jamming the blade deep into Skullbite's chest. She screamed with the pain and finally pulled back from the badly damaged Jaeger, swimming up and away to come around for a killing blow.

Carmen frantically worked over the controls to contain the damage, "The reactor is hit; we're at sixty percent power. We're leaking hydraulic fluid, both shoulder joints are badly strained, and our left leg is all but crippled." She looked at Daiman, "We're out of options, D."

"Not yet, we aren't." He shook his head, refusing to accept defeat, "We still have the missiles."

"Yeah, but we can't maneuver to aim them. There's no guarantee they'll hit."

Daiman pointed at Skullbite's marker on the sensors, "We immobilize her. Pin her down and fire at point-blank."

Carmen shook her head, "At that range, the blast could kill us, too, Daiman."

He turned to look her in the eye, "But it _will_ kill Skullbite."

Carmen was quiet for a long moment before calling up the missile controls, "Flooding all tubes, prepping to fire. I'm not going to bother with a targeting solution." Two large panels opened up on _Angel_'s chest, exposing the missile tubes.

She looked at Daiman again, "How are we going to immobilize her?"

"We sink the swords in as deep as they'll go. If we're going down, we're taking that son-of-a-gun with us. Just be ready for my mark." As he said that, Skullbite's marker turned around and started approaching fast. The massive Kaiju was picking up speed, reaching its clawed hands forward to finish off the crippled Jaeger.

Daiman nodded, "Wait for it…" Skullbite was coming in faster now, "Wait for it…" She was less than a hundred meters away at this point, "Rear jets! Now!" Carmen hit the control for the rear jump jets, pushing them off the rock they were stuck on and forward toward Skullbite with their arms pointed forward. As Skullbite came in on _Angel_, she saw the Jaeger attack and slowed to compensate just as the swords stabbed cleanly into each of her palms. The lengths of each blade went up the Kaiju's arms until the hilts hit the palms, effectively locking the two opponents together in a bloody grapple. She roared with the pain, exposing her chest to the missile tubes.

Daiman looked at Carmen, "Fire the missiles! Do it! Do it!" She hit the control that launched the warheads.

Over with the rest of the team, _Gipsy_ finished off another Kaiju by gutting it like a fish right up the chest with one of their swords when they saw quick series of muffled explosions in the distance. They dropped the Kaiju body and looked in that direction.

Mako looked at the sensor board, "That came from where _Angel_ was fighting Skullbite." She made some adjustments, "I've lost both signals."

Raleigh cursed under his breath as he hit the comm, "_Ronin_, status on the package?"

Off to their left by about a hundred meters, _Mu-onna Ronin_ jettisoned the nuke on their back, letting it sink to the ocean floor, "_Package in position. Arming now._" The activator panels on the nuke opened up and started sparking, "_Package armed. We have five minutes to reach minimum safe distance_."

Beckett nodded, "You and _Tango_ head to the RV point. We'll catch up with you."

"_Copy. Heading to RV point now._"

"Tango_ copies, _Gipsy_. Heading out._"

Raleigh looked at Mako and shook his head, "We've gotta go check." She nodded in return and _Gipsy_ started toward _Angel_'s last known position.

############

Several hours passed before the Jaeger teams made landfall, coming ashore sufficiently to be retrieved by helicopter teams. Back at the Shatterdome, _Tango_ and _Ronin_ teams received a hero's welcome as they came through the halls to LOCCENT where they were met by Tendo and Herc.

Henson shook all of the pilot's hands, "Good job, all of you. That was exemplary. You have every reason to be proud of that work." He looked over the Rangers present and frowned, "Where's _Gipsy_ and _Angel_?"

The commander of _Tango_'s crew glanced at his copilot and shrugged, "They sent us back to the RV point and said they'd catch up. Last I saw, they were headed to where _Angel_ was last." Herc's shoulders sank at the news.

"Marshall?" Tendo's voice came over his shoulder, "I think you need to see this."

Herc nodded one last time to the Ranger teams, "Good work, all of you." He turned to head over to Tendo's station and leaned on his chair, "What is it, Choi?"

Tendo called Henson's attention to a mark on his holo-screen, "I've got big movement near-perimeter. I've identified _Gipsy Danger_'s IFF code, but the sensor signature has way too much metal to be a single Jaeger."

Henson looked at the screen for a long moment before his eyes widened, "It's because _Gipsy_ brought _Angel_ back with them." He stood and pointed to another tech, "Get a position on where they're going to make landfall. I want the S&R choppers out there five minutes ago. Let's move, people!"

Fifteen minutes came and went without a whisper as everyone waited on the shore where _Gipsy_ was headed. The search and rescue teams were on-scene and waiting in case someone needed help. Out in the distance, the shape of a massive figure came into view through the falling afternoon haze. As it came closer, it was accompanied by the sounds of mechanical movement and the deafening thump of massive footsteps. _Gipsy Danger_ came out of the fog, carrying in their arms a fallen warrior, _Angel Horizon_. The badly damaged Jaeger hung limply in _Gipsy_'s arms as sparks shot and fluids dripped from different places on the machine. The S&R teams were aware that _Gipsy_ was bringing a second Jaeger with them and left a nice large area for them to make landfall. They stepped ashore out of the water and carefully leaned over to gently set _Angel_ down, or as gently as one could set down a three-hundred foot, two-thousand-plus ton robot. _Angel_ came down on the sandy beach with a loud thud that threw most of the S&R workers off their feet.

Inside _Gipsy_'s conn-pod, Raleigh hit the comm button, "I want teams cutting into that conn-pod now. They may still be alive."

Mako reached up and killed the channel, "Or they may already be dead, Raleigh."

He shook his head, "I won't admit that until I'm saluting their coffins." Beckett turned the comms back on, "S&R teams, are you in yet?"

"_Still cutting in, sir. Give us another minute._" There was a long pause over the comm before another response came, "_We're in. Searching for survivors now._"

Beckett nodded, "Let me know when you find them." The next long pause over the comm was unnerving, wondering if Daiman and Carmen were still alive or not.

"_We've found them, sir._ _They're alive, sir, but barely. They need medical attention stat._"

Raleigh nodded, "Get them to the infirmary on the double."

"_Copy that, sir. Okay, people, let's get these Rangers out of here and back to the dome. Let's go._"

Both Mako and Raleigh breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that Daiman and Carmen were still alive. Mako hit the comm to call in for evac as Raliegh looked down at the heavily damaged Jaeger, the pilots now being carefully removed so they could be treated. If he had to ask himself, knowing how this ends, was it all worth it, he knew his answer would be yes.


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue

The darkness Daiman saw gradually started to fade into light as his eyes slowly opened. The brightness accosted his vision at first, but that began to fade as he blinked it out. He carefully looked around, finding himself in a room with sterile white walls. He tried to move, but his whole body hurt at the moment. He felt something on his right hand and looked to find that he was hooked up to an IV.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Daiman looked to the source of the voice to find Raleigh Beckett standing at the foot of his bed.

Daiman rubbed his eyes with his free hand, "Where am I?"

"You're in the Shatterdome infirmary. Just take it slow. You've been through a lot." Raleigh leaned on the side of the bed, "You've been unconscious for almost a day. We were starting to worry about you. How're you feeling?"

Daiman shook his head, "Like I lost a fight with a freight train."

Beckett chuckled, "Taking on a Cat V Kaiju on your own will do that to you. Just take it easy for now."

The young Ranger finally looked at his superior, "The mission. Did we do it?"

"Yeah. We did it. The nuke flattened a couple square miles of ocean floor and the nesting ground with it. It destroyed most of the nests, dozens of young Kaiju, and even several breeders that were in the area. Newt thinks it should put a big enough dent in their population growth that, by the time their numbers are a threat again, we'll have enough Jaegers operational to begin hunting them down effectively."

Daiman nodded slowly and took a deep breath, "Sorry for breaking orders, sir."

Raleigh waved off the comment, "No, don't worry about it. In hindsight, if you hadn't kept Skullbite occupied, she could've done a lot of damage to the whole team. You did the right thing."

"What happened to Skullbite?"

Beckett shrugged, "There wasn't much left of Skullbite when we found you. I'm no analyst, but I'm pretty sure one of your missiles actually broke the skin and exploded inside Skullbite. You made a good mess of that Kaiju."

Daiman smirked as best he could, "Good. Carmen was worried that–" His eyes widened suddenly and he tried to sit up, "Carmen! Where's Carmen? Is she okay?"

"She's fine." Raleigh nodded as he gently pushed Daiman back down on his bed, pointing to the next bed over, "She's right over there. She woke up before you, but she's resting now." Daiman looked to see Carmen asleep in the next bed over and breathed a relieved sigh.

He looked up at Beckett again, "What about _Angel_?"

Raleigh's eyebrows rose, "You worked that machine over pretty solidly. Tendo almost cried when he saw her. The damage was extensive, but Tendo says he'll have her good as new in a couple of weeks. And since you're not going anywhere for a while, he'll have plenty of time to work his magic." He looked at his watch, "I gotta get out of here before the doctor starts getting fussy again. You take care, Daiman. I'll see you later."

"See ya, Raleigh." Daiman let his head fall back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling for a moment before looking to his right at Carmen. She stirred with a quiet moan and slowly, wearily blinked her eyes open.

Daiman smiled, "Hey, beautiful. How you feeling?"

"Like a train wreck." Carmen shook her head before looking at Daiman, "Good to see you awake."

"You heard about the mission? And Skullbite?"

She nodded, "Yeah. Raleigh told me. Looks like we did good."

Daiman returned her nod, "We did real good." He took a deep breath and looked at the ceiling above him.

"D?" Carmen spoke up again, "Just before we fired the missiles, I saw something in the Drift."

Daiman shook his head, "You didn't dig up another one of my bad memories, did you?"

Carmen chuckled wearily and shook her head, "No. Not at all. Actually, what I saw…I think it was a hope…a hope that I was in."

"Ooo…" Daiman winced in embarrassment, "You actually saw that?"

She nodded with a smile, "Yeah. Afraid I did."

He shrugged as best he could lying down, "Well, I guess that surprising you with it is kinda shot in the foot now, huh."

"Yeah. It kinda is." She reached over to touch his shoulder, "But I'm still going to say 'yes'."

Daiman returns her smile, "Thanks, Carmen." She withdrew her arm and looked up again, closing her eyes to go back to sleep. Daiman looked up at the ceiling and smiled. Who would have thought that an unlikely drift-pairing like this would have produced a couple of heroes? Not the rock star Jaeger pilots like before, but real heroes who would do what it takes to set things right no matter the cost. The old saying goes that fools rush in where angels fear to tread, but not this _Angel_. This _Angel_ steps boldly into the darkness to fight the monsters lurking there. It was their job. Cancelling the end of the world was all in a day's work for a Jaeger team. While the Kaijus were still a threat and would be for a while yet, they now knew that there was nowhere this _Angel_ fears to tread.


	8. Appendix

Appendix

Daiman kicked a large metal beam off himself and looked around the conn-pod. His helmet visor was spider-webbed with cracks, prompting him to pull it off and toss it aside. As best he could tell, the conn-pod was rotated ninety degrees, indicating that _Angel_ was lying on her back now. Sparks shot from just about every panel and water was spraying in from two different places. He stood up as best he could, pain racking his side as he did. He touched the pain and looked at his hand to find blood. Daiman clamped down on it as he looked around. He couldn't find Carmen. As he searched, he didn't notice the main screen flashing a confirmed Kaiju kill.

"Carmen!" He climbed through the ruins of the conn-pod as best he could, "Carmen! Are you okay?" He climbed a little further before he found her buried under a large plate of metal.

"Carmen!" Daiman ran to her side and grabbed the plate, ignoring the pain in his side and heaving as best he could to lift it off of her. He threw the wreckage off of Carmen and knelt down next to her, lifting her up and resting her against himself. He pulled her helmet off and put his ear near her mouth, listening for breathing but not hearing it.

He shook her gently, "Wake up, Carmen. Come on, wake up. Give me a sign here." She simply hung limply in his arms.

Daiman shook her again, "Come on, Carmen. Don't do this to me. Wake up!" He shook his head as he pushed his feet out from under him to sit down in the water pooled beneath them, still holding Carmen.

He gently brushed a lock of matted hair off her face, a tear welling up in his eye, "Carmen. You were right. You were right about everything. About me, about making new memories; all of it. I need to make new memories, new friends. I wanted…I was hoping I could do that with you." He held her closer, "Don't leave me like this. Please. I need you, Carmen. I need you." His grip on her relaxed and his head fell back on the bulkhead behind him as the fatigue and injuries took their toll. As Daiman fell unconscious, a moment after, Carmen's chest heaved gently as she inhaled deeply once again.

Outside, _Gipsy Danger_ came to where the explosion had occurred and started looking around.

Mako nodded to Raleigh, "We have three minutes to clear the area."

He nodded in response as he looked, "Just a little longer." He saw a spark from something in the dark and pointed, _Gipsy_ mimicking the movement, "There! That's gotta be them." They walked over to find _Angle Horizon_ lying inert amid a rubble of boulders. The left leg had been badly crushed and the lower torso had been torn open. Arcs of electricity shot from various points and she was leaking hydraulic fluid.

Raleigh looked at Mako and shook his head, "We can't leave them here." She nodded in return before they knelt down to lift the wounded Jaeger, working one arm under their back and one behind their knees to pick them up. They then turned to get out of the area before the nuke turned it into a parking lot. They had to get them back to shore to see if they were still alive. As far as both Raleigh and Mako were concerned, the _Angel Horizon_ team were heroes in light of their courage and action, and heroes didn't deserve to die like this.


End file.
